At what point does a song stop functioning like a song and become something else? Conversely, what happens when abstract sound collages coalesce into distinct harmonies and melodies? Finally, how many stylistic signifiers must be observable in order to categorize a piece of music as one thing or another?
These are the questions that fill my mind when I listen to the music of Sam Gas Can (real name Sam Gaskin #puns). For years, this dude has been making a bizarro brand of experimental pop that is inextricably connected to noise and musiqe concrete. There are plenty of other dudes who have been equally fascinated in the dichotomy between song craft and avant-garde sound but part of what makes Gaskin’s music so impressive and endlessly listenable is his ability to make these discrete styles feel like one cohesive world. On his latest album, I Sat Around Today, Gaskin moves effortlessly between bursts of aggressive lo-fi experimentation and fractured goofy pop songs. However, instead of these shifts feeling eclectic and erratic, it seems like we never really stop hearing the pop songs or the collages in the context of the album as a whole even though each track has its own distinct character when isolated individually. Somehow, it seems impossible to separate the warbly synth experimentation of “Fireworks” from the driving noise rock of “I Don’t Want to Feel the Skeletons Inside Me” or the unabashed power pop of his cover of Ted Lucas’ “It’s So Nice To Get Stoned.” Gaskin’s music is continually challenging what constitutes a song and what constitutes noise and I Sat Around Today is an excellent example of how these questions play out in his work.
I Sat Around Today is available now via Crash Symbols. You can stream the album in its entirety below.
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• Sam Gas Can: http://www.fauxpasrecs.blogspot.com
• Crash Symbols: http://www.crashsymbols.tumblr.com