Rare Frequency › Gutta PerchaTube Overtures (The Land of) CD

Gutta Percha
Tube Overtures (The Land of) CD

Gutta Percha is Brent and Ryan Hibbett, two brothers from Illinois and Tube Overtures is their debut full-length. Packaged in a simple wooden box, it’s an endearingly odd record. At the album’s core is a series of pocket trumpet (or sometimes guitar) improvisations on old television themes from shows like “Little House on the Prairie,” “Hill Street Blues,” and “M.A.S.H.” — a riff on the soundtrack to a thousand days home sick from school or work. The Hibbetts’ interpretations of these syndicated chestnuts are slow and melancholic. The recordings, often made into voicemail systems, are low-fi and reverberant. They are then combined with everyday sounds: chirping insects, passing traffic, and the gentle chattering of the TV itself. It’s atmospheric and strangely affecting, especially when listened to in a state of semi-distraction, which heightened the already impressionistic quality of the music. There are a couple of non-television-themed pieces here added to fill things out, and while they’re nice on their own, they’re somewhat beside the point. At over 70 minutes, it lasts a bit too long, just like sick days spent sacked out in front of the tube.