Corridor: Real Late (Manimal, 10/25/11)
Corridor: “Objective Lens”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Corridor_Objective_Lens.mp3|titles=Corridor: “Objective Lens”]Led by multi-instrumentalist Michael Quinn, Los Angeles-based Corridor is a quirky one-man pop experiment, crossing streams with classical and world sounds. After releasing a self-titled debut album in 2009, Corridor hopped on tour with Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Rainbow Arabia, and also traveled the US solo with a VW bus full of instruments. Quinn cites influences like Swans, medieval English folk, and Django Reinhardt.
Though the MP3 above isn’t the most illustrative example, Corridor’s blend of electronic looping and acoustic plucking is often dark and emotive, with an almost grunge/metal heaviness. That makes “Objective Lens,” with its whirling synths and circuitous guitar lines, somewhat of an anomaly on Corridor’s forthcoming album. Real Late is populated by thumping tribal percussion and distortion on the verge of squealing, avant-garde hysteria. Even when venturing into dirge-ful, down-tempo territory, a jazz-like sense of melodic phrasing pulls it all back together. Call it classical noise.