When I first read that the new Obfusc, aka Joseph Burke, album was based in his own photography, I was excited. Audio and visual mediums of art have always seemed intertwined in my mind. The obvious correlation is in film, where music is utilized to heighten, sometimes even create, moods, tension, or anticipation in the viewer. I’m thinking of something else, though, more about how the mind’s eye interprets the aural input and vice versa. Poets compose to paintings and other images, why can’t musicians compose from photographs?

The question, however, is: will it be any good? Regrettably, the answer in this case is: not really. My anticipation was not met with the quality beats I’d hoped for. Cities of Cedar was way to easy to lose in the background, even when I was struggling to focus on it and nothing was in the foreground. Yet, while fading into the background, it is neither jarring nor comforting, which further distracted me from it. Maybe this was purposeful, like hunting through a photograph of mixed images and focus to find the real subject matter? I humbly doubt it, though.

Of the original works on this album (some remixes are included as well), “Amateur Cartography” is my favorite. In the first place, the title makes me think of that old critical line, something about “amateur psychology.” Musically it is the most engaging, with its simplicity and near-absence of beats for most of the track. When the beat does kick in, I can see and feel the fingers of long ago explorers redrawing the maps that had led them across great rivers and prairies, from sea to sea and over mountain passes. Then it regresses from there; “Close Your Eyes and Daydream” is too tense to follow its directive. It jitters and jumps through some pretty non-descript synthesizer sounds and flat drum programming. Also, “Mood Gradients” does nothing but induce edginess.

The remixes included at the end of the album serve to redeem this release from ‘completely ignorable,’ starting with Milieu’s remix of “Sounds from Shattered Seashells.” After hearing it and being moved, I wondered why anyone would include remixes that obviously outshine the originals on the same album? Why not include it on a remix EP or free downloadable extra? Well, my ears benefited from their inclusion as the remix has that childlike free feel that I associate with the likes of am-boy.
   
In closing, I’d like to go back to a conversation I had last night with a friend about being a music critic. I hate feeling like I have little positive to say about an album, but it also doesn’t mean that I’m trying to communicate to the artist to pack it in and close shop. On the contrary, I always hope to find some light to touch on and encourage growth. I just wish it were more than the remixes in the case of Cities of Cedar.

-Gabriel Bogart