I know it's a couple years old, but I recently picked up Harvey "Doctor" Karp's audio DVD The Happiest Baby on the Block. This debut is a concept album, of sorts, loosely relating to baby/womb sounds. The bonus film that comes on the DVD (oddly listed first on the menu) explains a little of the workings of Karp's mind in the creation of this ambitious, yet flawed, album.

The set opens inventively with "Calm a Crying Baby," using ambient whooshes as both the beat and the melody (what there is of it). Drawing from a minimalist tradition, the song suddenly drops in an industrial thumping that smooths out the 140 bpm of the whoosh effect. I'm not so well-versed in the genre, but it strikes me as a truly unique moment.

The novelty quickly wears off, however, as the Doctor uses the same tactics for the second track, "Soothe Your Baby," which also lasts exactly 10 minutes and relies on the same techniques and repetitive structure as the first track. What initially sounded inventive to me is now suggesting a lightened version of Merzbow's static from the upcoming album Boris. 'm still intrigued, but I'm wishing Karp would develop his idea a bit.

The third track, "Prolong Sleep" takes things to an extreme. The whoosh slows down to the speed of an adult heartbeat and the industrial effects are less noticeable. This music seems to function best at a high volume, where it can fully envelop you. Karp still hasn't changed things -- and apparently the kids are responding to this like a Vivaldi fan at a Glass concert -- but he makes an artistic statement by running the same loop for 40 minutes.

The aggressive presentation reminds me of Jeff Tweedy discussing live endings to "Misunderstood": (and I paraphrase) if you repeat something a little, it loses all meaning, but if you continue to repeat it, it takes on a new meaning as you hear it differently. That's what happens here; at 10 minutes, you're bored, but by 30 you're completely transfixed, both lulled and engaged.

So "Doctor" Karp might have created an album based on very little, but it doesn't come across as a novelty so much as a philosophical aesthetic statement.