Robert Fripp "Exposure" (DGM) 06.07.06 Keith Boyd
Motherfucking Daryl Hall can sing! I mean it's no great revelation that he can, it's just stunning to actually hear it. He is blessed with a voice so strong and acrobatic, it's a wonder he's not more lauded. Perhaps it's the instant recognition that his tone brings. It only takes a note or two and most radio-aware folks can peg a Hall & Oates tune cold. Recognizability and ubiquity tend to dull our perception of the genuine quality of a given thing. It's as if we're using the sense organs and mental processing of countless other individuals to engage with our experience of life. Take for example Mount Rushmore . Its been photographed and sculpted and drawn and put on stamps and printed on license plate and emblazoned u-haul vans and used as a location for movies. Close your eyes for a second and think, " Mount Rushmore ". Please, go ahead and do it. I'll bet a fairly solid image came to your mind's eye. Some vaguely tannish and grey rocks sculpted in the likeness of a group of presidents. Maybe a chain of associations sprang forward in the wake of your initial image. Some of these might relate to actual facts connected with the site. You may know the name of the artist. You may have been there with your family. Someone in your family might have been born, died, gotten married, won the lottery, given you a present, played "Smoke on the Water" on accordion, stolen something from you, lost their mind, etc. right after your visit and when you see a picture of Mount Rushmore your mind shuffles through these events. Along with these associations are the endless images you've seen of the site. These images and conceptions, while intrinsic to our knowledge of Mount Rushmore have no real relationship to the actual thing. They are in fact a cloudy barrier or filter we have placed between ourselves and an object. Occasionally, particularly when our focused perception is otherwise occupied, we have a powerful and direct experience of something. Perhaps we're sick or tired or just in a very calm and receptive state. Whatever the set of circumstances are, for some reason the familiar suddenly reveals its true nature and stuns us. We look at the faces of Mount Rushmore and they just simply are. Their nature confronts us and we see them for the first time. The message might be beautiful, it might be horrific but we're getting a hit of the true essence of something and it's not being mediated by either a pre-existing image bank or our associations. This is how Daryl Hall's voice hit me while listening to the recently re-issued Robert Fripp album "Exposure".

The album was originally released in 1979 and was radically alter between the recording of it and the eventual release. Central to this alteration were the objections of Daryl Hall's manager Tommy Mottola and the people overseeing Debbie Harry's career in "Blondie". The tracks were deemed to experimental, the association with Fripp viewed as commercial suicide and as per usual in the music business, the "business" won out. Big chunks of it were re-recorded and used the voice talents of Peter Hammill (Van der Graaf Generator) with only two of Hall's contributions remaining. So in this re-issue you get the original release, a later 1983 remix and then a few of the unreleased Daryl Hall tracks. I have no idea how these two artists came to work together on this album but I'm glad they did. On paper the pairing seems so unlikely as to be absurd. It's just hard to imagine the precise and hypnotic guitar figures of Robert Fripp being caressed by the soulful and rich voice of Daryl Hall. The fact is though, it works. On the song "North Star" we hear the true nature of that Daryl Hall voice and it simply is a flooring experience. The tone is rich and sweet while still remaining raspy. The phrasing of the lyrics and the occasional use of sustained falsetto sent me running to the ipod to dial up Hall &Oates "She's Gone" and "Sara Smile" and realize that he's always been that good. In that voice I was hearing something not actually related to the lyrics. There was an intensity, depth and presence I'd never allowed through before. I heard the voice of a seeker. I heard the voice of loss. I heard the voice of tender resignation to the wounding ways of life. Sometimes we are privileged to experience a blissful moment and Daryl Hall brings many on this album. The music bears the stamp of Robert Fripp's quests and inquiries into the nature of guitar sound. Using a tapeloop system dubbed "Frippertronics" he creates complex webs of notes that repeat a shimmering metallic mantra and shift upwards and down. All of the instruments on this album are played with virtuoso cleanliness that never is a means unto itself. The technical aspects of the playing are harnessed and brought to bear on the overall groove of each piece. At times this lends a surprising funk quality to some of the music which if not present could come across as stiff and herky-jerky.

There is an inscrutable element to Robert Fripp and his music. You get a sense of ambiguity about his motives. Is he trying to tell us a musical tale with a new language or is he simply following the call of an internal and unknowable muse to satisfy his agenda. This ambiguity provides a palpable tension in his music and this tension is so interesting we are compelled to keep listening. It's like listening to someone ask themselves questions and hearing the various answers they come up with. None of which the questioner seems to attach more meaning or fondness for than any of the others. I often feel that Robert Fripp isn't a person who wants to be trusted. He likes to keep us on our toes. It's like he's a mountain guide who's not sure we're worthy of making it to the summit. While this can be frustrating it's perhaps better for us in the long run. We're not provided with any easy answers in his music so we have to actually listen. In this listening we are rewarded. The rewards vary and can range from hearing Daryl Hall's magnificent voice for the first time to understanding the power of repetition and juxtaposition. No matter what, we come away from "Exposure" enriched and expanded and if that isn't worthwhile, I don't know what is.