BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT, RIO EN MEDIO
SOLAR CULTURE
Sunday, May 24
Brightblack Morning Light are master mood-setters, a talent that
plays best on the home stereo, where the listener’s imagination, as if
absorbed in a novel, can fill in the blanks of the band’s somnolent,
minimalist, organic beat-scapes.
The band does its best to re-create this phenomenon live by
minimizing its own presence. Solar Culture was darkened to near
pitch-black, with only a few colored spots lighting the stage behind
the musicians. Frequent belches from a smoke machine kept the stage
area clouded, further obscuring the band, and the effect was
uninterrupted by any effort to engage the audience, which nevertheless
stood, apparently mesmerized, as close as possible to the stage.
Fans expecting to hear “Everybody Daylight,” popularized by a
soft-porn video on YouTube, might have been disappointed, along with
anyone expecting political fireworks based on the band’s “no military”
stance that generated press before their last Tucson show at Club
Congress in 2007. Only a few free copies of the Defenders of Wildlife
magazine on the merch table spoke to Brightblack’s current political
involvement.
Nor did the show satisfy any yearning to hear favorites from the
band’s recordings. The set consisted of mostly brand-new material,
covering only “Gathered Years,” “A Rainbow Aims” and “Hologram Buffalo”
from the September 2008 release Motion to Rejoin, and nothing
from two previous releases.
Nonetheless, astute fans got their money’s worth in the
uncharacteristic tension and exploration of new material. The resulting
improvisations made this show one of a kind. Since Brightblack was
without a drummer—ever-present on recordings and usually on
tour—the audience glimpsed more of the soul of Rachael Hughes.
She held down both the rhythmic center and chord changes on her vintage
Fender Rhodes organ while Nathan “Nabob” Shineywater moved like a
specter between keyboards, xylophone and guitar.
The set closed dramatically, at midnight, when the stage smoke set
off Solar Culture’s smoke alarm.
The crowd gathered early for Brightblack’s fellow New Mexicans, Rio
en Medio, who plied an electronic folk mélange loaded with
personal and musical charm, in bright and textured contrast to the
headliners. Her set ranged from gentle ballads, accompanied only by her
baritone ukulele, to fully realized orchestral electronica, vivid with
imagination yet grounded in earthy substance.
Linda Ray
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.