A look at Rian Treanor’s portfolio confirms that they deliberately push the boundaries for what it means to experience and share music with others. Their portfolio reveals countless experiments that involve everyone, regardless of their musical backgrounds, to participate in collaborative artistic expression. A few standouts include children drawing pictures that are later translated into strange electronic compositions, or music that is created by strangers from different locations who only communicate through the compositions that are played live.
Treanor seeks to use music to fight against feelings of isolation or detachment from the world. While the music that was created during Treanor’s musical experiments were abrasive, participants ultimately accepted those odd distorted plinks and bloops to connect with each other in a sort of digital drum circle. In fact, Treanor’s experiments prove that even during a pandemic collaboration and inclusivity in music can lead to feelings of connectedness.
Treanor’s album, File Under UK Metaplasm feels boxed in, repetitive, and deceptively simple. Yet, further listens bring to light subtle rhythmic and melodic shifts — some tracks even undergoing a beat change that is so gradual you could miss it on first listen. These tracks sonically resemble Treanor’s boundary-pushing social experiments, except that Treanor likely took their favorite excerpts from various digital drum circles, and re-contextualized and reworked them into an album. Melodies are not the focus and are sacrificed with the use of sustained notes that are strangled by distortion and time stretching algorithms. You must infer an underlying melodic body, but stay focused on the rhythms for this record to make sense. File Under UK Metaplasm pulses and pumps with a strong African influence, which was surely brought on by Treanor’s residency in Uganda and collaborations with African musicians: notably South African Acholi fiddler player, Ocen James. The kicks don’t pump in a typical 4/4 rhythm, but instead swing with an intensity that sounds chaotic and hypnotic. Rarely do the drums include more than a kick and snare or clap; rather, the album drives itself forward via the swirling, distorted, and flanged synthetic slap-backs that dance about with as much swing as the primary drum section. The album’s artwork is also reminiscent of the soundplay: with hand drawn lines that are replicated and spliced into different combinations and shapes that create a disjointed and abrasive image.
Even if you don’t take to the sharp and distorted production of File Under UK Metaplasm, it is hard not to feel inspired by Treanor’s efforts to bring communities closer together by their interest in creating music. Give this record a try if you’re interested in hypnotic sound collages with gradual progressions. I also recommend checking out their portfolio of experimental works just for inspiration on ways to connect with your own community.
– Evan