Review: James Romig & Mike Scheidt ‘The Complexity Of Distance’
James Romig, for all that don’t know (like myself until recently), is a composer. That word… composer… makes my skin crawl because I know classical music isn’t far behind. I just have never been a fan of that type of music. With that said, I checked out some of James Romig’s back catalogue and was rather impressed. The song Still was very cool with Ashlee Mack playing some interesting piano and Loomings is more of a drone piece that plays with various sounds. It’s definitely different in a good way.
After listening to some of these songs, it was no surprise he composed a song for Mike Scheidt to play on guitar. From the moment it was announced I was intrigued and couldn’t wait to hear it. June 24th was marked on my calendar (I’m old school) and the countdown began for The Complexity Of Distance.
The album is one 57 minute long track of Mike Scheidt playing guitar. I considered stopping the review there because that’s all I needed and I was hooked, but I shall continue because I also like to write. The piece contains three strands consisting of 13, 14 and 15 beats between notes. It is cyclical in nature and with a beat of 48 beats per minute the entire cycle takes 2,730 beats to resolve, hence why it’s almost an hour long. Each strand consists of two notes. The first strand has A and C ringing out in Mike Scheit’s drop A tuning. Strand three consists of F to G while strand three alternates E and D. It’s a very well thought out process and the title The Complexity Of Distance has an entire new meaning once I read how this song was meticulously structured.
The distortion is thick and heavy and the whole single notes ring out unmuddied…
I’m going to stop pretending I know what I’m talking about with how this composition of music was structured. To the untrained ear (mine) this is a bunch of chords ringing out for an hour. There aren’t many guitarists I would listen to an hour’s worth of chords ringing out, but Mike Scheidt is DEFINITELY one I would, and did! His tone is perfect to my ears, and I could listen to that all day. The distortion is thick and heavy and the whole single notes ring out unmuddied. He spent quite some time on this recording trying to get the right tone to fit with this composition. The work paid off because it’s absolutely faultless.
This composition may not be for everyone, it’s unique and the hardcore Mike Scheidt fan that I am, I will purchase this in any format I can.
Label: New World Records
James Romig: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Mike Scheidt: Facebook | Instagram
Scribed by: Josh Schneider
