Molasses / A Slow Messe
Album: A Slow Messe   Collection:General
Artist:Molasses   Added:May 2003
Label:Fancy  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2003-07-07 Pull Date: 2003-09-08
Week Ending: Aug 17 Aug 10 Aug 3 Jul 27 Jul 20 Jul 13
Airplays: 1 1 4 1 6 4

Recent Airplay
1. Mar 24, 2011: Treeswinger Radio
Silkworm
4. Mar 03, 2009: At the Cafe Subhemian
Adieu L.S.A.
2. May 07, 2009: Death Row Radio
Killing Lucy Stone
5. Jan 08, 2009: Power Hour
Death March
3. Apr 16, 2009: Death Row Radio
Death March
6. Aug 28, 2007: Lost and Found
Vespers

Album Review
johnn
Reviewed 2003-07-07
THIS IS FUCKING GREAT!!! This is a Montreal group with members of Godspeed You Black Emperor. It is an excellent collection of sad, dark, cathartic folk songs that use experimentation extremely effectively. Every other track is a short minimal sound texture. The full songs start folky with just guitar and voice, but orchestration gradually dominates with thick, gorgeous walls of feedback, harmonics, and horn anarchy. The cathartic folk tone is reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel, while the dark, haunting despair produced by experimentation is not far from the Black Heart Procession. Few bands merit those comparisons in my mind, so I hope this reflects how fucking good some of these songs are! I prefer Disc 2, it opens up more.

Disc 1: 8, 13, 11, 2
Disc 2: 5, 1, 7, 3, 9

DISC 1
1. beautiful sustained string harmonics. Haunting.
2. slow, strummed acoustic guitars, fiddle, voice. builds.
3. non-traditional violin bowing on top of sustained keys.
4. acoustic guitar, celtic sound. sliding violins, percussion.
5. haunting harmonics from bowed piano (?)
6. slow guitar on voice, prominent strings. not there for me.
7. street sounds, bird chirps, repeated banjo riff.
8. starts w/ acoustic, then great sustained horn cacophony!
9. sparse, sustained piano chords.
10. decent, sad folksong. acoustic, voice, violin, piano.
11. slow and drony, with echoey percussion.
12. sustained echo.
13. cathartic voice + guitar, listen loud. shimmering harmonics, piano.

DISC 2
1. distorted chaos of samples then great, mean midtempo groove.
2. ambience.
3. acoustic + guitar, then thickens with strings, piano.
4. percussion + ambience.
5. quiet guitar + voice, then thick horn frenzy. great!
6. dulcimer sounding instrument
7. voice + guitar over quiet feedback sounds. breaks out beautifully.
8. sustained tone.
9. sweet French vocal duet w/ guitar, strings, percuss. leonard cohen.
10. quiet, echoey synth sounds.
11. thick, sustained string harmonics. great!
12. organ and voice. sustained organ builds louder and noisier.
13. distant organ noodling.

Track Listing
1. Desole   14. Delirium Rag
2. Valley Song   15. Le Jardin De Fer
3. Dans Une Maison Croulante   16. Astree
4. Insomnia   17. Les Enfants D'anarchie
5. Fm   18. Silkworm
6. Whitey Blues   19. Beyond the Zero
7. Whitman County Revisited   20. Chinatown NO.33
8. Death March   21. Vespers
9. Hopeless   22. La Berceuse D'eve
10. Our Lady of Winter   23. Reprieve, 15 Juillet
11. Killing Lucy Stone   24. Desole Reprise
12. New World Harbor   25. Enemy Hymn
13. Adieu L.S.A.   26. Slow Mass