Alexander Tucker

Portal (ATP)

By Lou Battaglia
Published: August 30th, 2008 | 12:00am

Alexander Tucker’s third album, Portal, is a work that interlaces touches of psychedelia, glowing drones, gentle finger-picking, and atmospheric guitar work. On paper, Tucker — who fancies himself an avant-garde folkie — has come up with a potent formula for sonic success. On record, however, Tucker struggles to realize the same transcendence as similar artists like Six Organs Of Admittance, who play around in the same sonic territory.

It’s not that Portal isn’t filled with worthwhile ideas. It is. It’s in the execution that the album falls short. The songs, which all sound kind of the same, drag on while Tucker bounces back between multi-tracked acoustic guitars and a hushed electric solo guitar that shreds along mostly in the background of every track.

The vocals are completely indiscernible, and Tucker’s voice presents an unpleasing contrast to the instrumental atmosphere he sets up. He even utilizes a second singing style that resembles Dave Gahan (of Depeche Mode) on two tracks, which makes this contrast even more grating. Imagine an acoustic droney version of “Useless” and you have the Tucker track “Husks.”

And then there's the sound quality. While there is something to be said for lo-fi or demo-esque recordings, it only works for certain genres. With this kind of droney, acoustic freak-folk, a certain level of audio quality is absolutely necessary in order for listeners to be able to let the sounds wash over them. The lowered sound quality doesn’t let the listeners' consciousness slip away with the music. Instead, you will find yourself playing with the damn levels on your EQ for every track.

Nevertheless, I am convinced that Tucker is an artist to watch. His ideas are potent. He obviously has little fear when it comes to making music that is true to his vision — this manifests most clearly on the album’s last track, “Here,” where Tucker chants a single line of “Come, come here” over and over again while his acoustic and electric guitar interweave for eight solid minutes. With a little help from a producer and some other likeminded musicians, Tucker could perhaps realize the sprawling sonic landscape that is clearly in his head.

—