VGRC

Recently, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the first, last and only album released by L.A. outfit, Deconstruction. Formed from the ashes of the Jane's Addiction breakup, Deconstruction was the result of a one-off collaboration by guitarist Dave Navarro and bassist Eric Avery, after lead singer Perry Farrell and drummer Stephen Perkins went on to form Porno For Pyros. Out of print for over a decade and having achieved nothing more than cult popularity in underground music circles, you'd think that the Avery-Navarro side project would have been more than a footnote in 90's music history.

Deconstruction stands in stark contrast to the efforts put out by the efforts put out by their former Jane's bandmates in Porno For Pyros, starting with the intentions behind the two groups: Porno was Farrell's new career vehicle, while Deconstruction was an intentional one-off outing.

Musically, the two halves of Jane's couldn't be farther apart either. Whereas Porno was a more relaxed affair fueled by an almost sexual energy, Deconstruction was raw and schizophrenic. Powered by the soaring guitar work of Navarro and Avery's mastery of the bass spectrum, Deconstruction threw conventional song structures out the window and took the listener on a breakneck tour of L.A., barely stopping for breath until the end of the 71 minute album.

The album's only single and the first track, L.A. Song, serves as an introductary course of the madness. Starting with a calming acoustic guitar that slowly morphs into an almost psychedelic and spacey groove, you almost think it's going to be easy listening. Just as you begin to slip into it, however, you're hit by a raw torrent of the bastard child of funk and thrash that puts Los Angeles funk peers Red Hot Chili Peppers to shame. And before you know it, the song has changed directions again.

After Jane's, I never would've thought of Navarro or Avery doing vocal work. However, Deconstruction shows what the pair is capable of, sans-Farrell. Eric Avery takes on the role of lead singer in addition to his bass duties, flatly "singing" lyrics (or in the case of Single, just reading aloud personal ads from a local newspaper) in a heavy baritone voice that makes you wonder if John McCrea and Mark Lanegan had a child together. Meanwhile, Navarro provides backing vocals, and occasionally taking the lead on more melodic tracks like Big Sur, to smooth out the mix. And when you think you've gotten a grip on who sings what, Gibby Haynes from The Butthole Surfers makes a guest appearance as well, contributing vocals for Fire in the Hole. It's this intentional avoidance of having a consistent frontman that puts Deconstruction even further out on the fringes of alternative rock, much like the Gorillaz or the early efforts of Queens of the Stone Age.

For Jane's fans, the album also contains a bonus treat in the form of the instrumental Iris, the first (and to date, only) studio rendition of a jam that Jane's used to play in tandem with "Up The Beach" as an intro to concerts as part of the sound check.

In an interview Eric Avery did in 1996, he once said:

"I did indeed have the abruptnesses intentionally in mind. It interested me to try making a record that mimicked the audio/visual randomness of daily life in any major metropolis. Like TV. I was thinking about how incredible the human faculty for making sense is. That we are able to make order out of the barrage of images and sounds that assault us all the time is amazing. I'm surprised we aren't more fucking neurotic than we already are.

The record title refers to the post-modern architects and thinkers who played around with things being defined by what they are standing next to rather than by themselves. I wanted to try to pair up seemingly unrelated musical parts and see what kind of music would be produced."

Completely random, unrelentingly raw and without a doubt one of the most creative alternative rock albums to come out to date, Deconstruction is a masterpiece. While it's schizophrenic tendencies will make it a grueling listen for those who haven't ventured far from radio rock, those who can appreciate its artistic merit will quickly find this album as one of their favorites.

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