Alonetone Features: glu

There are 17 kinds of music and glu makes all 17. There is sad music, happy music, sleeping music, mall music, theatre music, and the rest, soundtracks of shits and giggles.

There are 12 albums on his alonetone page. That's 149 songs, living there shoulder to shoulder. Sometimes marching in lines or marching towards heaven. Sometimes taking the shapes of great letters or disney characters partaking of things they normally can't.

It is too many songs, so I take the liberty of walking down and up the line, picking out some few with great lips or very large feet.

"Master"

From the very start of this song I begin to wish I had some great and ominous decision to make, and this to comfort me in my brooding. And as it continues, I realize that I do, as much as anyone else. Wake up or continue to sleep...Give up or go on...there is beauty in either, certainty in neither. By the time the snare comes in to awaken me, I've made my decision and I take it with me in my headphones, down the street on an epic march for a tall can and something to do. For good music is like daylight or darkness, it changes the colours of things, hides them away or shows them as they are. This song spins me around.

"Amazonian"

I don't know what to call this track. The drums walk around on you. The pianos flirt and tiptoe. The whole thing kicks your head in, relaxes for a bit, then comes back breathing easy. It shows on this (and the other 148 songs) that glu understands rhythm. He knows when it should stroll, when it should run and when it should take its leave.

Whether he uses synths, guitars, bass, mandolin, harp, bamboo flutes, clay flutes, violin, digeridoo, scissors, spoons, keys, flying animals or the trusty machete - every song on the page comes with great production, imaginative arrangements and impeccable taste.

Some other suggestions:

• "Ver"
• "made it this far"
• "lovin it"
• "old days"
• "kissagirl"
• "mode B"

I have learned something. In the past, I have been guilty of considering instrumental music as little more than a place to put clever things I'd decided to say. But glu's music isn't a steppingstone or air-conditioned bus ride. I take it as a reprimand to all my previous foolery. For it needs no accompaniment, and without some wax haired crooner to point towards up, I can take it in and decide for myself how to feel about it.

He's giving it away. Gordon “glu” Ulmer has no money. He is not against it and he is not for it. “For,” in the sense that “you don’t use glu FOR money.” And in the sense that glu will not play the part of cash cow at any local drive thru. Recently a fan attempted to buy one of his albums. He was rebuffed. “You can download my music at alonetone,” glu told him, “for free.”

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