(Foxy Digitalis) When an album is barely audible, the subtleties play an increasingly important role in the recording. One and Seven is a collaboration between Bryan Day, who records as Sistrum, and Alex Boardman. Over the course of seven tracks, the duo explores empty space and the sound contained therein. On the sprawling second track, which clocks in at almost 14 minutes, deconstructive guitar skirts the watery surface laid down by another guitar that sounds like a muted air raid siren. As each player scrapes and fumbles their way toward the finish line, the listener is left looking for something to grab onto. It's like falling down a metal tube with perfectly smooth sides; you just want something to stop your descent. The third track has very slight hints of free jazz, while track six does an excellent job using quiet feedback. This piece uses radio static to great effect, giving the feeling of a post-apocolyptic world where the skies are black and the air is dead. My favorite track, however, is the nine minute fourth part. Semblances of melody appear over the cloudy haze laid down by Day's taisho-goto before descending into free jazz skronk. It's a quiet, almost-soothing piece. It's excellent. This is an album that is very quiet and perhaps not that easy to digest. But in the end, it's a very rewarding experience. 8/10 - Brad Rose

(Aiding & Abetting No. 273) All five people who wondered what sort of music Public Eyesore honcho Bryan Day might make will find the answer on this disc. In short, it's another standard PE release: subdued, almost inaudible guitar improvisations (Day plays guitar, Alex Boardman plays guitar, taisho-goto--I don't know, either--and "radio"). Like I said. Typical. And typically great. Those who like to burrow deep into the recesses of their minds while listening to some seriously unusual music will find solace here. - Jon Worley

(Touching Extremes) The Day and Boardman in question are Bryan Day (guitar, taisho-goto, radio) and Alex Boardman (guitar), and the title refers to the seven tracks, numbered "part 1" through "part 7." The seven tracks are a series of playful, mostly subdued improvisations that find the two players playing against each other about as often as they play together; the sound of these pieces involves much bowing and plucking, along with the occasional foray into percussive string action, and while the work never quite resolves into actual songs in the traditional sense, they're nowhere near as random as the sound of most improv work, either. They employ a wide variety of sounds -- even opening with loud feedback that gradually dies away before ending abruptly (only to return later) on "part 4" -- to keep things moving along. Frequently one guitar plays a cryptic, extended rhythmic figure while the other one carries on a more percussive or improvisational counterpoint; their interplays flows from moments where their playing is unified to moments when they are moving in two totally different directions, and yet the odd, disjointed nature of things never spirals into complete chaos. At times their sound approaches a musical form of Morse code, invoking the spirit of secret messages waiting to be properly decoded. More strange transmissions from the land of improvisational freedom. - RKF

(Ampersand Etcetera) A combination of guitars (from both) and Day on taisho-goto and radio (these two are half of Shelf Life reviewed earlier). This a relaxed and satisfying improv album. The guitars are dominant, being played, strummed, picked, melodic - almost bluegrass, but that feeling is probably reffecting the 'guitar' sound. Some of the strings are loose and woobly: almost like manipulated tapes, adding a variation in sound. There are shorter atmospheric opening and closing parts. The second track is the longest, at about 13 minutes, with some extended tones underneath at times, skittery runs, loose playing and absorbing spaces, drawing you in. Three is a fuller piece, more connected as the strings interweave. The tones in the second return as big humming in Four - probably the radio, I decided now - in a piece that is rapid and playful. Five starts a little harsher before an interchange between melodic runs and strumming. Darker feedback in Six introduces the most scrapey 'difficult' piece before the aforementioned melodic short final section. This is a very nice release - the two players working nicely off each other, combining the tighter and looser string components. - Jeremy Keens