William BasinskiBest William Basinski Albums Ranked

The Disintegration Loops (Remastered)

pitchfork

10

“The four volumes of William Basinski's ambient masterpiece have been gathered into a gorgeous and impressive  9xLP, 5xCD box set, including two previously unreleased live performances.”

The Disintegration Loops II (Remastered)

pitchfork

9.4

“You are slowly being destroyed. It's imperceptible in the scheme of a day or a week or even a ...”

The River

pitchfork

8.8

“This happened once before, at least. It was in Memphis-- not the ancient one nestled on the banks of the Nile, the one situated along the Mississippi. In the early sixties, before the Beatles landed upon our shores and seeded the hippies. During those years, young kids became interested in the sounds of folk and blues, scarcely realizing that their Negro gardeners and street-sweepers were once pro”

The Disintegration Loops (Arcadia Archive Edition)

CHAZZJAZZ

10

“Throughout the run time of The Disintegration Loops, which is about an hour and 20 minutes. It plays an orchestral lick for maybe 6 seconds. That’s it. That’s the entire album. (Except the 2nd movement but that’s a small portion.) And that’s not all. It decays slowly over time that adds unpredictable percussion along side the orchestra decaying and turning into crackling percussion in of itself. And now you might think I’m crazy. Chazz, why rank this album a 10? This is the most repetitive album to ever be known to man. Out of all the albums and genres that have been explored and pushed to the absolute limits and so many more to come… why this? … I feel like we take a lot of things for granted. More specifically the limited and easily stolen currency of life. Time. And I feel like we waste it. A lot. And in a world where everything is changing constantly or if not, instantly. it creates a painful formula of all of us. yes. all of us looking back on past experiences and memories and saying to ourselves ‘time passes by way too damn quick’. But yet we spit in our own faces and decide to waste even more time. Whether we scroll it away or decide to just talk about today as insignificant and not like the way we somehow cherish was, at the time, the present. So how does this relate to the album? Well, what I found in my listening time was interesting. Because I love ambient music. But not hour long reoccurring lemotif ambient music, or atleast I thought that as I’ve actually never tried it. When I listened to this, I expected my patience to dwindle quick. I had Apple Music pulled up, ready to just move on with the queue I had set up to just listen casually while I did something else. That’s not what happened. I never did anything, I never swiped through Apple Music like I predicted I would, I didn’t even pause the damn thing, I kind of forgot about all of that. It was almost as if something told me ‘if you leave, you’ll regret it deeply or forget it to shield yourself from regret’ And it was right. I sat and listened to the entire thing and honestly it was a very unique listen. The deteriorating sound of the orchestral segment was what made this listening experience so unique. I felt like as I listened through my brain tried to still piece it together to be what it was when it played those first ten times. That happened more and more as I got to the 30 minute marker, then eventually it was loud static percussion of what tried and somewhat made me believe to be what was that heavenly replaying loop that I so happened to listen it slip by from my very own ears that somehow took it for granted. And that’s where it all connects. Is without a single word even being muttered. It has, or what I see, the underlying lesson of just assuming something or someone will always stick around. We were always taught to think and believe that time is valuable and to spend it wisely. And that’s a great lesson. But I dare to add on another layer to that and say, sequence that time you’ve been given. Going to back to that certain thing or someone. I’m going to ask you a question. … will something or someone always stay the same? Even while they aren’t here? Don’t call me a mad conspiracy theorist. But I don’t think it does. Again everything and everyone change. Not just you. And I feel like when listening to this album. Which I will now say is a masterpiece because dear god this review is getting long, but pretty much forms that whole portfolio of ideas. The main idea being that we drift through life just expecting everything to be where it should be. All the while the world eats and picks away at things until the point when you go to check on it, it isn’t what it used to be or it isn’t even there at all. And that’s what time does ladies and gentlemen. As much as we keep saying that we got time in our hands as long we use it wisely. No. Time doesn’t listen to anybody. All 8 billion of us are literally walking subjects of time until we aren’t. And we watch it pass like it’s the world’s fault. And it is, but there’s nothing we can do about it. The best we can do is be happy and spend our time as much as possible to what we love and who we love. And that entire lecture of the temporary reality we live in. Is condensed down into 60 minutes. Beautiful. So either be taught the same lesson I got, experience some other memory or daydream rabbit hole similar to mine. Or just go back to scrolling on tik tok. Who cares. I just like this album.”