Alexander McGregor
Part One: Aguirre Returns
(self-released)

Part One: Aguirre Returns, multi-instrumentalist Alexander McGregor's self-recorded, self-released debut, feels like it was made to be heard at 3 in the morning. It's the kind of CD you play when everyone else is asleep, when no one else can call you on the phone or drop an e-mail in your inbox or remind you you've got deadlines to make, lunch to eat, dishes to wash or bills to pay — when you can do nothing more than sit back and concentrate on the sheer splendiferousness of what you're listening to.

What makes Aguirre Returns such a magnificent record is that it sounds as if it was recorded under the conditions in which it's best heard. Despite clocking in at just over 25 minutes, it's a slow, deliberate affair engineered for maximum introspective impact.

On such tracks as "No Nine," "Nothing Wrong" and "Making Movies," McGregor's voice seems to waft up from an abandoned well. Yet the music recognizes the critical differences between being alone and being lonely. Nothing McGregor sings or does musically creates the impression that he especially wants company in his quiet corner of the world. It sounds like it's music created by a guy alone in his apartment for other people alone in their apartments.

The solitary vibe holds up even on poppier numbers such as "Rise of All Cities," which bouncily takes note of time's passing with the wry couplet, "It's the end of all the beauty queens/ because they're all becoming moms/ But they still wear their stiletto heels/ when they vacuum and they mop." The song's drum machine, goofy keyboard bits, plucked guitar and fuzzy distortion lend easy comparisons to lo-fi heavyweights such as Neutral Milk Hotel, Guided by Voices or Olivia Tremor Control. Yet McGregor's straightforward recording style irons out most of the lo-fi wrinkles in keeping with his stated goal of making "music my grandmother would have liked."

"I wear bowties and hope I can distill my musical leanings in a vaudevillian sort of way," McGregor says in the brief, refreshingly uncontrived press release that accompanies his album. And he pulls it off, alternating smoothly between the psych-folk of "Rise of All Cities" and the Old World charm of "No Nine," on which he merges a simple, machine-generated drumbeat, a muted trumpet and a bit of piano trickery that sounds downright dulcimer-like. Added to this are his usual guitar and plaintive la's. It's a rich mixture that adds to the song's empty, desolate feel despite the high number of instruments populating the track. It's the kind of tune you'd expect to hear wafting out of an old tube radio.

Conversely, "Making Movies" (another one of those bottom-of-the-well songs) takes a minimalist approach, with a simple, plucked guitar serving as virtually the only accompaniment to McGregor's deliberate Spanish and English lyrics, which are among the album's best:

When there was a war/ you didn't join up/ you had better things to do/ like making movies/ or just studying for school

The muted trumpet makes a comeback at the end of the song, after McGregor's stopped singing, but "Making Movies' remains, at its heart, a breathtaking piece of simple folk music.

For someone who has recorded and released his own debut, McGregor displays a remarkable grip on how to put together a bunch of songs into a work of art. He does a wonderful job of not stacking the desolate-sounding tunes and in separating the album's six proper tunes with clever musical interludes that bridge the gaps excellently.

All told, Aguirre Returns is a beautiful, breathtaking album that all too few people will hear this year. Like a lot of creative people, McGregor isn't too preoccupied with the business end of things, which means that those living far afield of his home base of Boston will have to do a little more work than usual. The album can be had by sending a check or money order for $7, postage paid, to Alexander McGregor, 6 Brown Terrace, Apt. 2R, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. The artist can also be reached by clicking on this link and sending an e-mail.

In the meantime, McGregor's given Flak permission to post an mp3 of "No Nine." Please listen, enjoy and drop him a note if you're so inclined.

— Eric Wittmershaus (ericw at flakmag dot com)