Death of the Sun

CUL DE SAC - Death of the Sun (2003)
The fifth album from Boston’s Cul de Sac, Death of the Sun continues their (ok I’ll say it, post-rock) experimentation with deep textures and middle eastern sounds. Dark and brooding overall, the album holds together well despite my own personal aversion to tracks 2 and 3. With a number of additions to the band, their approach is practically the same as in the past but now more sophisticated and composed. Although not tremendously engaging, there are still some wonderful tracks to take note of. Think also of Labradford, Tortoise. 1, 6, 4.

1. gorgeous! warm, muffled looped cadence with slow, moaning cello. gentle acoustic guitar/banjo and steady mid-tempo beat come in
halfway. gets sweeter and sweeter, esp with melodica at end.
2. sitar on top of rumbling percussion, swishy sounds. same to end.
3. middle eastern rhythms over synth buzzes and female lala-ing.
4. over-verbed guitar sounding dark and mysterious. Xylophones, cymbals, occasional percussion, warm washes.
5. nice rhythmic loop of static with slow steady percussive beat. sweet acoustic guitar fades in slowly. wash of crunchy guitars at end.
6. begins with cello rumble and harmonics. voice samples and acoustic guitar take over with a Calexico kind of feel.