Infinite Love

Album Review

For Dustin Wong’s first widely available solo effort released on Thrill Jockey, the former Ponytail guitarist piles the delays high and gets ambitious. Named for a mantra he repeated while on a psychedelic mushroom trip, Infinite Love is a 40-minute movement played entirely on guitar (with the occasional drum machine beat interspersed for effect.) While the composition is split up into tracks, there are no song titles. Further complicating the package, Wong recorded his piece twice and released the slightly differing versions on two CDs titled (but not listed as) "Brother" and "Sister." Both discs start the same, then veer in different directions at the midpoint (approximately from tracks eight to twelve), before returning to the same climax. Fittingly, disc two ("Sister") becomes a little more delicate and playful, while disc one ("Brother") is a little more spiky, but these are particular and subtle differences that are not instantly noticeable. The soundscape is so intricately built with guitar pedals set to an infinite loop cycle, that it’s hard not to lose track and become hypnotized and caught up in the tightly wound web of one of rock’s most innovative guitarists.