ECCENTRIC ELECTRONIC ECSTATIC

JIM DEVAULT
Voice of the All

Don't expect to be wowed by the production values of this home-brewed cassette by electronic composer Jim DeVault. The sound lacks digital spit and polish, and the black-on-blue j-card is strictly shoestring. But if you'd like to sample some new music that's as accessible as it is eccentric, you've come to the right place.

There's an unmistakeably childlike quality to these 12 mostly instrumental selections, albeit a cheeky, perhaps slightly demonic child, with a grownup's arch sensibility -- one who can title a piece "Who's Been Sleeping on My Deathbed?" or deliver a rather ghoulish metaphysical sermon as if it were a sentimental singalong ("[You're All] Just as Good as Gone"). The tonal melodies and elemental rock-beat rhythms are delivered with exaggerated, Grade-4 recital stiffness; the synthesizer sounds are often toylike; yet the product, with its layered polyphonies and sophisticated textural contrasts, is adult. I'm often reminded of two other wry musical eccentrics, Erik Satie and Frank Zappa.

At his worst, DeVault's precocious inner enfant mechant keeps tugging at your sleeve, repeating the same motifs over and over to delight himself and provoke you. At his best, as in "Just an Ordinary Day," his inspired noodling can bring you to a kind of dizzy ecstasy, like spinning on your back under a big summer sky.