RE: You (2014)

Credits

released May 27, 2014

Cat#: fcr146
Label: New Focus Recordings

Engineer: Ryan Streber
Producer: Ryan Streber
Recorded at Oktaven Audio, Yonkers, NY

RE: You is a lot of fun. So it may not be obvious that it is also the result of a modern online-privacy violation nightmare. The unusual titles of these unusual tracks are taken from a series of about 100 messages, both incoming and outgoing, that were erroneously cc’d to me by a popular online-dating site in 2008. In some database on some server in some highly-air-conditioned room somewhere, some Midwestern, middle-aged Jeffrey K. Miller’s online profile had been mistakenly paired with my email address, and the result was a ringside seat at the romantic travails of a total stranger.

In 2008, dating online was generally considered a shameful admission of social defeat, a desperate attempt to connect made by those who couldn't cut it in the real world. That summer, as Robert and I read these messages, watching the font colors change, encountering strange new emoticons, witnessing a proliferation of maximalist orthography and punctuation not seen since the Vorticist movement (or a sixth-grader’s IM history), it was tempting to dismiss them for being ridiculous and naive. And from the perspective of The Elements of Style, of course, they are. Nevertheless, that very same naiveté gave us access to an emotional life that was too human and too real to ignore. We had to admit that we were not only amused; we were also moved.

Heard as a whole, these songs do not take us on the journey of a love affair, but on the journey of a longing for one. They trace the arc of a very real desire for something to happen. But for all their moments of excitement and absurdity, they never allow us to rise from the solitude of the desk chair, where the sound of the pounding heart is transformed by the fact that there is no one else around to hear it. This strange sensitivity that attends digital romance can be felt in every moment of these compositions. Now that I have experienced it myself, I've started cc'ing Robert on all my romantic communiques, in hopes that he can use them, too, to create something wonderful. I am still waiting, anxiously, to hear back.

-Jeffrey K. Miller

PRESS

“The music itself is crisp and clean, dexterously shifting character between movements from post-minimalist grooves to dark, jazzy episodes colored by electric-guitar feedback. Honstein manages to set music to the highs and lows, the hopes and disappointments of dating that anyone can relate to, but with tongue in cheek.”

- George Adams, American Record Guide

“The initial phrases of the opening track, with their gangly electric guitar and foregrounded percussion, also suggest an alternative pop album, as do the openings of just about every other track. But the vocals never come. Instead, the instrumental textures get manipulated in ways that are more reminiscent of contemporary chamber music. So while this is music that is clearly informed by indie rock songs, it is ultimately something else entirely.”

- Frank J. Oteri, newmusicbox.org

“And yet, what is truly remarkable about his technique is how little he has to do. If I may paraphrase a quote attributed to Ravel, Honstein seems to have found complexity by eschewing complicatedness.”

- Damjan Rakonjac, artificialist.blogspot.com