I find myself having great difficulty describing what I find so pleasantly alluring about Total’s Here, Time is Space. For me the album can only be summed up in brief phrases that allude to pain and misery. Since this approach has become an exercise in near futility for me, I decided to give some insight into my process of trying to convince you (being the collective you who have decided to read this) to listen to the album.
First I will attempt to put the music in the context of which it was created; i.e. describe the musical and historical significance of the project in a way the reader can relate to:
• Total is a solo project of Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Pure/Hototogisu/etc.) Originally started as a noise/industrial outlet following the breakup of Bower’s band Pure, Total later became a side group of the Skullflower project.
Okay. So Skullflower isn’t exactly Pink Floyd but I think I covered what I needed to. Now comes the part where I talk about what Here, Time Is Space sounds like:
• By 1994 Skullflower had been primarily delving into distorted sludge jams focusing on the low end of the register that nonetheless contained some semblance of a structure to work within. Total, on the other hand, was the polar opposite — all high end guitar fuzz and no discernible structure. Sometimes beautiful tones can be heard through a wall of piercing static distortion. Other times, its just an ugly mess of well… piercing static distortion.
Okay, it’s getting kind of dicey right? I should try a different approach. Maybe if I talk about a real life feeling the music reminds me of some readers can relate and they will like it! (PLEASE LIKE IT!)
• Listening to Here, Time is Space is like spending too much time in the sun with a really bad hangover. You aren’t sure if you have a fever or maybe the sun has warmed your skin too much. It feels like a can of motor oil has been poured in your head, and it’s getting difficult to form complete thoughts or ideas. Your only choice is to close your eyes, shut out the pounding headache and nausea, and just allow the warmth and delirium to overtake you momentarily.
Great, there I go again. Perhaps this is just how it’s supposed to be. I should probably just sum it up and post some youtube videos.
• Total’s Here, Time is Spaceis an epic solar drone. Miserable? Only if you let it be. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and search for that one great feeling among the sickness that surrounds you.