As a chronic ruminator, I hear Steve Kenney’s Live Lex as an aural translation of my most hopeless anxiety terrors. But while I’m psychologically doomed to spin myself into the ground, Kenney drags himself on through the sonic bile of his own creation — bile which seems to grow deeper and more viscous with each step. On this reissue of live documentation dating back to a 2006 performance in Lexington, KY, he can stand it for just under thirty minutes. However, within that half hour, Kenney’s craft never feels repetitive, and though his tools are few (Pro-One and RE-301), his music never feels limited by this. Instead, it takes a decidedly human turn as his sharp improvisational instincts are broadcast unmarred by an exhaustive effects chain.

Kenney’s purity of vision and persistence is admirable; it seems he has been consistently honing his skills within this medium for the better half of a decade (collaborations with friend Nate Young as Demons are of special note). If, on paper, a six-year-old live recording seems an unusual choice for a vinyl debut, it’s because in most cases it would be. But Live Lex’s reissue on vinyl is earned in that this is an uncompromising live document by an expert of his field. When the motor in his RE-301 struggles to keep up with a swift acceleration Kenney has just administered, the Space Echo doesn’t whimper, it screams. Let’s cross our fingers for another LP soon.

Steve Kenney, Side A excerpt

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Words: Sam Franklin

Live Lex was released this fall on Nostilevo in an edition of 149 copies and can be purchased from Mimaroglu or Fusetron.