Reviewed: 2018-03-06
Genre: General (X)
FCCs: none
Review: this CD has its feet in many fields of contemporary, experimental music. But what drummer Diack’s compositions, and the band's playing, does so well is to create a unique and very special sound of their own. You can certainly get a sense of the ‘quiet-loud’ aesthetic of Post-Rock and the ways in which simple tunes are repeated insistently and with small shifts in tonal center of the music. There is also a fascination with the merging of produced and accidental sounds, where tape hiss or other noises at recording are left in the mix, or with sounds that could be taken from old vinyl or radio static. The background story on the inspiration for these tunes is fascinating, about how Ontario, Canada flooded several native villages to create a waterway to the Atlantic Ocean.
If You Like: Godspeed You Black Emperor, Porcupine Tree, King Crimson, Terje Rypdal, Peter Hammill, Luminous
Track Review (favorites denoted by *):
1/ Displace (2:03) – spacey start> slow jam builds in volume & intensity> quick fade
*2/ Bittered (2:34) – spacey start> heavy slow jam with power chords> quick stop
3/ Pluterperfect (3:49) - rocking guitar starts> full tilt boogie electric jam morphs into space jam> guitar solo> quick stop
4/ Idyll (3:20) – percussive start> relaxed slow jam with piano over the top> gorgeous piano solo slides into off-kilter & stops
*5/ Lacuna (3:39) – piano starts> spacey electric guitar joins into slow electric jam> quick fade
*6/ Reliquary (7:46) – piano solo starts> slow duet with bass> slow jam with spacey guitar> space guitar solo out into the universe> slows to slow repetitive jam with spacey intercepts> swings into full band midtempo rocker & fades
*7/ Sap (8:11) – heavy piano chords start> slow jam with eerie space noise> space jam> melody shift into a different universe> fade
8/ Placed (6:04) – piano starts, slow & repetitive