Ex-Easter Island Head - Mallet Guitars One

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Ant on Thu 16 Dec, 2010.

This 12" contains three tracks recorded live at St. Bridge's Church back in August 2010. The duo play horizontally mounted guitars by hitting them with percussion mallets and the results are intriguing. They create some nice minimalist rhythms focusing on repetition, amplification and resonance. The results become dreamy and hypnotic and once fully absorbed in their sound I'm beginning to think it would have been great to experience it in the beauty of the church as well as how it would sound in such a space. Edition of 200 copies.

‘Mallet Guitars One’ is the debut release by Ex-Easter Island Head; a Liverpool based ensemble comprising on this record of three solid bodied electric guitars and two performers.

The record is three movements of shimmering drones, ghostly overtones and sustained consonances elicited through gradually changing rhythmic patterns played on the body of horizontally mounted guitars with percussion mallets. Utilising repetition, resonance and amplification, the music of Ex-Easter Island Head is poised between minimalist austerity and sonic density.

Recorded live in the cavernous roof space of a listed neo-classical church, the minutiae of three fixed chords are magnified by the resonant architecture of the building. Forming an ever changing surface over an unmoving centre, overtones are amplified and different timbres generated by changing percussive patterns, creating a soundscape that is immersive and organic.