Slider Bruce Kaphan Hearts of Space, 2001 Tracks 1: Clouds 2: Country & Eastern 3: High Desert 4: Big Brain Small Brain 5: Back to the Light 6: Sideways Carousel 7: Outpost 8: Arc of Flight 9: Homage (Pour la Grande Fromage) 10: Undeserved Ending 11: Shinn Pond Buy it online Reviewed by David Middleton	One of the dead giveaways for a real down and dirty country and western song is the twang of the pedal steel guitar. For years it has been associated with the genre more than just about any other instrument -- fiddle and washboard included -- its sound mirroring the vocals of someone singing about the loss of their significant other, dog or pickup truck. Though the pedal steel guitar often epitomizes country music, it is not country music. An instrument -- whatever it may be -- is just a tool, a piece of technology to be exploited and any stereotyping that we impose upon it is unfair. It would mean that a saxophone could never be used for anything other than jazz, a violin for anything other than classical or bagpipes for anything other than, well, whatever genre bagpipes happen to fall under. Thinking outside of the box -- or genre as the case may be -- with exploration and experimentation is what helps to broaden an instrument's repertoire and goes a long way in understanding how to expand its boundaries: often helping us discover a new niche for an instrument by using it in a way we never thought it could or should be used. Slider: Ambient Excursions for Pedal Steel Guitar has engineer, producer, session player and multi-instrumentalist Bruce Kaphan boldly stepping over the line into a region largely dominated by electronic keyboards and synths and concentrating solely on pushing the ambient envelope with the pedal steel. You might think that a whole album dedicated to nothing but the pedal steel guitar would get a bit overbearing or monotonous, but such is not the case. If anything Kaphan branches out into diverse and undiscovered territory bringing forth such luscious sounds that you forget you are listening to an instrument often played by someone wearing the prerequisite Stetson and matching shit kickers. On many of Slider's songs the bright, hard edges and typically shimmering sound of the pedal steel guitar is still there. However, gone for the most part is the country music phrasing and cord progressions -- the one exception being "High Desert," which plays wonderfully with the root sounds of the country genre and creates a slightly bent pedal steel stereotype; you can almost see the tumbling tumbleweeds. What comes across on Slider is more of a hybrid of blues, jazz, electronica and eastern music. The album is often quite mellow, with its broad and spacey soundscapes, it still comes across as a bold and ballsy statement. That an instrument can be used outside of its stereotyped genre is not new thinking but Kaphan puts the pedal steel guitar through such strenuous paces that it is often almost unrecognizable, sounding like everything from an Autoharp on "Clouds" to a sitar in "Country & Eastern." Kaphan plays it airy on "Big Brain Small Brain" and the epic length "Outpost" (clocking in a nearly eight and a half minutes), letting the breathy empty space between notes tell most of the story. "Back to the Light" successfully forces together some backward loops and eastern influences and "Homage (Pour la Grande Fromage)" -- one of my favorites partly because of the name -- leans toward a percussive, uptempo, soundtrack feel reflecting Kaphan's foray into film scoring. As lovely and amazing as this album is, what is equally remarkable is that this is a solo album. Kaphan plays all of the instruments with the exception of a fretless bass on the album's first track "Clouds" and percussion on "Homage (Pour la Grande Fromage)." Occasionally light and breezy the album can slip past your ears if you don't take the effort to listen and I'm almost tempted to say that this is wonderful background music, but too many times music of this type is unfortunately relegated to the creation of mood and atmosphere. While Slider is very successful in this regard to just put it in the category of mood music would do it a disservice. Slider is a greatly textured and highly nuanced piece of work with depth. It deserves a close and attentive listen. | July 2001   David Middleton is the art director of Blue Coupe magazine. He thinks that "bagpipe music" is an oxymoron.	You might think that a whole album dedicated to nothing but the pedal steel guitar would get a bit overbearing or monotonous, but such is not the case. If anything Kaphan branches out into diverse and undiscovered territory bringing forth such luscious sounds that you forget you are listening to an instrument often played by someone wearing the prerequisite Stetson and matching shit kickers.