BTV069d Questions in Dialect : The Ghost Wishes to Speak

Questions in Dialect
The Ghost Wishes to Speak (btv069c)
Buy Online | cdep/2xLP

Track listing:
1. On This Hand
2. Thought Procession
3. Blank Staircase
4. Train No Track
5. Gather My Wits
6. From a Cloud

The Ghost Wishes To Speak is a small box of puzzle pieces refusing to be called background music. Questions in Dialect has unleashed a mind-blowing avant-garde instrumental EP influenced by modern composers. The six tracks of Ghost speak loudly (and sometimes softly) in contrast to current musical trends.

Most of the material on The Ghost Wishes To Speak began dancing around in the head of multi-instrumentalist Phillip Blackwell early in 2005. After a tour playing for Seattle’s Discover America in February of 2006, Phillip set out to pull the dying Questions in Dialect back together. In a period of 24 hours QiD had three new songs to develop, but most members were too involved with other things to contribute very much. Phillip finished the recording himself, enlisting Steven Bevilaqua (Colour Revolt) as producer and co-engineer.

On The Ghost Wishes to Speak, Blackwell channels the modern composer music of Philip Glass, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Terry Riley blending it with the choral works and minimalistic approach of Arvo Pärt, filtering the impressive mixture through his subjective post-rock lens. Phillip spent late nights improvising and composing with synthesizers, mellotron, vibes, and various electronics, creating pieces of music that breathe ambient, classical, avant-garde, and minimalism. The other members still contributed: Daniel Guaqueta joined on drums and percussion all tracks but “Gather My Wits”, Matthew Magee performed violin on the track “Blank Staircase”, and Jonathan Blackwell provided the artwork. “Thought Procession” includes some ingenious programming by Steven Bevilaqua, and long-time friend Joey Munn improvised the only guitar on the EP for the song “Train No Track”, which sounds more like a synthesizer from an ambient Brian Eno record. Ghost is a work that combines careful composition with free-form improvisation.

Questions in Dialect began in Early in 2001 as brothers Phillip and Jonathan Blackwell, and friend Matthew Magee began an unconventional approach to writing music. These multi-instrumentalists took the name Questions in Dialect, and began creating experimental music in the unlikely state of Mississippi. They caught the ears of local jazz and world music radio director Daniel Guaqueta, who promptly joined on drums. Eschewing the typical wave-calm-wave pattern of instrumental rock, QiD’s songs erect cascades of affected guitar melodies over dub bass textures and cataclysmic drum fills, and often move into free-form improvisation during live shows. Since taking the role as creative director in 2006, Phillip has evolved the sound by incorporating electronics and new composition methods, even moving into avant-garde territory.

The name Questions In Dialect comes from an over-analyzed revelation of the ending of the 1996 Coen Brother’s film Fargo. This may seem quite strange, but seeing as their musical style is a combination of art rock and film score moods, and in a live setting, the songs are often translated visually through projected images, the name then becomes rather fitting. The purpose behind Questions in Dialect is to create cohesive music, visual art, and film that encompass the feelings and emotions of the human experience, and to unite artists of various backgrounds.

This is part of a four instrumental band series where each band was commissioned to fill an LP side with new music. Burnt Toast Vinyl will be releasing the four bands together as one double-LP set, but also as individual cdeps. The series includes Foxhole’s Push/Pull, The Magic Lantern’s s/t, Soporus’ Atómové Elektrárne, and Questions in Dialect’s The Ghost Wishes to Speak.