Asheq Akhtar is a man of many talents. He’s best known as a respected, prolific music critique until in 2010 he starred as the character of focus in Gillian Wearing’s discomforting debut feature film Self Made. However as Asheq himself confesses, since his teenage years his greatest desire was (is?) to be a musician, and regardless of his successes elsewhere, it seems that his true passion for creating music is not one that he can let go.
It seems strange reviewing an album of someone who himself is a better music journalist than I could ever hope to be, particularly as I am also an aspiring musician. Curiosity about the challenges that the parallels alone would bring to reviewing this release was enough for me.
Suborno, Portuguese for bribe, is a solo project from Asheq that is a composition of improvisational recordings in the form of nine songs which due to the nature of creation, can never and will never be replicated. Considering the last time we saw Asheq creating new music was as the musical driver behind the infectious melodies of Warning! Heat Ray!, the difference between what he has created here and what came before is remarkable and would seem more than a little influenced by the effects of starring in the film Self Made.
Where Self Made explored teaching method acting to people with little or no previous experience in a series of intensive workshops to create a film scene of their own choosing, Suborno seems to eschew any desire for mainstream acceptance and instead is an indulgent exploration of expression. Where once conventional song structures were the building blocks, The Instrument (nod to Fugazi?) is a sprawling soundscape of space and disorder that recalls Ry Cooder‘s seminal soundtrack to the film Paris, Texas. The comparison is strongest on tracks like And when he smiled. and particularly Fa(r)ther where the hollow reverb of a slide guitar is put to great effect. In fact, it’s at the points where these comparisons are strongest where the album is at its strongest. As can be expected from an release where the scope and intention is to relay thought, impulse and emotion in a free-flow format, the end product lacks a consistency to the nine tracks within. The guitar posteuring of An uncertain evisceration of nothing. comes as a confusing surprise following the hypnotic trance of the opening two tracks. Its inconsistent timing between the two lead guitar parts dampen the impact that the up-tempo attack of this song seems to have intended.
Perhaps wary of the results of an approach like this to the end listener, the tracks themselves are mostly around the three minute mark, not getting the opportunity to outstay their welcome, but simultaneously giving more of an impression of a series of experimental ideas over something more coherent and calculated. The echoing reverb of acoustic guitars is the consistent element, with only The star with only one string., the album’s centerpoint, exploring percussion and sitar playing with unmemorable results. Of course, these criticisms can be dismissed as inevitabilities of the fundamental approach of the project, but no matter how enjoyable these tracks may have been to create, the lack of cohesion can make it a difficult listen to come back to for repeated listenings.
However amongst these frustrations, there are some genuinely fantastic moments within these tracks. The heavy delay of one acoustic guitar over a steady rhythmic progression of another is almost kinesthetic when the gentle lull of a harmonised “ah” drifts through the speakers in Division / Separation. On the haunting Flights. the combination of a disconcerting acoustic guitar line combined with more numerous effects too distorted to identify which make me imagine being surrounded by numerous people in a sterile dystopian waiting room whilst feeling painfully alone.
As a concept, this album is an incredibly bold move by Asheq. The overlap with previous material is little, yet there’s nothing timid about this release or the contents therein. To take the singer/songwriters familiar weapon of choice and frame it in this exporatative manner brings to mind James Blackshaw or Jack Rose. Who knows whether this is a reactionary snapshot to the place Asheq is in his life right now or whether there’ll be more we’ll hear from Suborno. Now being a father himself, surely the time he can dedicate to his music will only decrease, but as a snapshot of a man still discovering himself and looking to push his own boundaries, it’s a powerful document.
