First emerging within the indie rock scene in and around New York City during the 1990s as a member of bands like Ditch Croaker and Essex Green, Tim Barnes' singular approach to the drums, notable for deploying the kit melodically and texturally, first captured widespread acclaim for his work on Silver Jews' 'American Water' and Jim O'Rourke's seminal 'Halfway to a Threeway' and 'Insignificance'. Bridging the New York avant-garde scene — working with free improvisers, wild experimentalists like Tony Conrad and Alan Licht, and visionary explorers like Tower Recordings — with his continuous work with bands like Sonic Youth and Stereolab, Barnes represents an embodied, crystalline image of the unexpected creative junctures that characterized the late 90s and early 2000s.
Despite how busy he remained for decades as a musician alone, Barnes seemed to always up his own game and contribute more, working tirelessly as an engineer and producer, through his efforts via his Quakebasket imprint — initially launched to release archival recordings by Angus MacLise, alongside other drummers and percussionists — and his founding of the much beloved Louisville experimental venue, Dreamland, following his move to Kentucky. It's little wonder why there's so much love attached to him. He is intrinsically part of the connective tissue of the American scene and all of the spirit that underscores it.
'Lost Words' is the first of two LPs comprising an astounding body of recordings instigated by Barnes' longtime friend and Pullman bandmate, Ken (Bundy) Brown, following his heartbreaking diagnosis in 2021. Drawing together an astounding cast of collaborators from the American underground with whom Barnes has worked over the years — Joshua Abrams, Oren Ambarchi, Ken Brown, John Dieterich, David Daniel, Darin Gray, David Grubbs, Glenn Kotche, Alan Licht, Ro(b)//ert Lundberg, Matt Mehlan, Rob Mazurek, Tara Jane O'Neil, Jim O'Rourke, and Britt Walford — the album's incredible eight tracks are a tour de force that illuminate the percussionist's incredible sense of touch and compositional vision.
Within each piece, we encounter Barnes' working within a series of rotating ensembles of various combinations, or duos in the case of 'Warming Up' with David Danial and 'Putting Socks on Centipedes' with Oren Ambarchi. Writhing and guided at every step by Barnes' astounding polyrhythmic sensibilities, augmented by at truly astounding cast of collaborators, 'Lost Words' unfurls as an immersive, hypnotic world of its own, driven by a profound sense of textural and tonal abstraction.
The companion to 'Lost Words' and recorded over the same period with a similar (but occasionally different) cast of collaborators — Joshua Abrams, Oren Ambarchi, Ken Brown, John Dieterich, Darin Gray, Glenn Kotche, Robert Carlos Lange, Ro(b)//ert Lundberg, Douglas McCombs, Matt Mehlan, Rob Mazurek, Tara Jane O'Neil, Jim O'Rourke, Chad Taylor, Thollem, Britt Walford and Mike Watt — 'Noumena' opens itself wide by traversing a mind-warping expanse of creative approaches and styles.
Further highlighting and drawing upon Tim Barnes' incredible versatility and sensitivity, the album's nine tracks unfurl as a diverse array of rhythmically driven abstract forms, at times manifesting as complex arrangements of electroacoustic space; hypnotic, groove-oriented movements; off kilter post-rock; and at others remarkably engaging expression of left-field pop. In each instance, while each member of a respective ensemble brings a tangible sense of their own experiences and individual sensibilities, every song embodies a striking sense of unity where the sum is far greater than its parts.
Displaying the towering heights of the truly visionary approach to creativity and experimental music that made the 90s and 2000s such an important period of music, while forging endlessly toward an unknown future and sense of possibility, 'Lost Words' is a record for which there are few equivalents in both its spirit and creative accomplishment. In simple language, it's just overwhelmingly good and profoundly inspiring in numerous levels, at every turn. Like its companion, 'Noumena' is an overwhelming immersion into the power of community and musical collaboration, taking huge steps toward centering Tim Barnes' towering contribution to underground music in our minds for years to come.
Even if this was the first we'd heard of him, the pure potency of this music would have that effect on its own. Issued by Barnes' own Quakebasket imprint as beautifully produced LPs, these records are pure manifested in sound. Absolutely essential, especially as a pair. We can't possibly recommend them enough.
