Bridges Buildings – Balkan Tropics

July 9, 2006 • Standard Klik Music

I know I say this a lot, but man, EPs are awesome. I found this little gem long ago, released on the now-defunct netlabel Standard Klik Music, which released a lot of obscure electronic artists. I wish I'd kept more of what I heard; being unfamiliar with electronic music I didn't like most of it at first, including Balkan Tropics, but I'm glad I held onto it.

It sounds just like its title: it's some sort of microhouse, but with a very summery, tropical feel to it, mostly thanks to the acoustic guitar and washes of ambience. It's definitely not club music, and seems more for at-home relaxing (and considering that's how I hear 90% of my music, it's a good thing). It seems like very simple music, and the beats definitely are simple, but the guitar and noise have some neat interesting improv glitchy things going on that keep it interesting (though it might just be sloppy guitar playing, it's hard to tell). Not to mention that there are some great guitar melodies in here, especially on the closer "A Stones Plane"; just great stuff.

It's still not the most memorable music ever, and most people probably wouldn't give it a second thought. But for me personally, it's quite good. I haven't heard much else like it—what other house music can sound so organic?—so it's got that going for it, and I'm definitely going to try to find more stuff like it.

6

City of Ships – Look What God Did to Us

2009 • Translation Loss Records

You'd think that City of Ships would be right up my alley—a neat mixture of post-hardcore and sludge, with some mathy riffs and atmospheric tendencies. I even saw them live supporting Rosetta and enjoyed them quite a bit then. But no matter how many times I listen to Look What God Did to Us, it flatly refuses to click with me.

It's odd because City of Ships does a lot of things right—the instrumentation is good across the board: nice gritty bass lines, interesting and appropriately-complex drumming, great guitar lines that alternate from pretty clean bits to heavy jamming. The vocals are probably the weakest link soundwise; they're definitely not bad—he's a talented singer—but they don't mesh with the music terribly well. They seem too intrusive (vocals come in when it sounds like they shouldn't) and I feel like, stylewise, something grittier and growlier might fit better, like early Mastodon vocals. Still, the overall sound is really good and I like the direction they took there, especially the little things like the organ stabs in "Complacence in the Nest" that make the song. Subtleties like that can really make a difference.

My biggest issue with the album is definitely the songwriting. As I mentioned, there are a lot of cool riffs and grooves to be found throughout; the problem is that they're put together poorly. The different sections of the songs don't lead into each other well, making the music often difficult to follow and thus less memorable. It's like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle by finding pieces that only sort of fit and just jamming them together. The end product won't be very pretty, even if the potential to create something nice is there. There are exceptions; "March of the Slaves" is mostly well put-together, as are others (like "Grandfather Paradox" and the aforementioned "Complacence in the Nest"), so it's not an epidemic but it's still a noticeable flaw.

Well, maybe it's not. Perhaps they actually put a ton of thought and time into crafting the arrangements (at least I hope they did), and the end result just isn't for me. Obviously plenty of people still enjoy it, and still the musicianship and sound is good, so my reasons for considering Look What God Did to Us to be just average are very subjective. So I won't necessarily recommend it but it's probably worth looking into for some fans of the genre.

5

Torche – Harmonicraft

April 24, 2012 • Volcom Entertainment

Sometimes it sucks to be a fan of a band, especially when they have one particular album you really love. No matter what else that band releases, it'll always be compared to that one album, and you'll never find it to be as good even if it has its own merits. Meanderthal was that album for me; I loved its unique style with the catchy yet heavy and complex riffs, upbeat mood, and soaring chord progressions. Harmonicraft is basically more of the same, and while it's not as good as Meanderthal it's still one fine album.

For the most part, Torche isn't breaking out and trying anything new with this album, so if you have heard anything by them before you're getting more of the same here. There is a bit more melding of the short, punky sound like the tracks on Songs for Singles and chugging riffage, so there's a nice bit of variation there. Maybe it's my attention span, but here I'm really getting into those short tracks, those tiny nuggets of riffage that are practically over as soon as they've begun, such as "Walk It Off", "Sky Trials", or "Kiss Me Dudely". I think they show off what Torche does best; it's tough for music to actually get me genuinely pumped but those songs do it for me.

My singular gripe with is album is that it's a touch too long. There are a couple blander tracks hiding in the middle that don't seem to do anything but make me long for the opening few tracks again and delay the awesome closers. I do have a personal preference for releases with lower song counts (regardless of length), as shorter, more cohesive albums almost always sit better with me. That's why I love the "Healer" / "Across the Shields" EP so much; four great tracks and that's all you need. Here, maybe cut "Roaming" and "Skin Moth" for a nice, more cohesive little half-hour package. Perfect.

Really though, there's not much here to be critical about. Sure, maybe Harmonicraft doesn't live up to my rose-colored-glasses standard Meanderthal set. So what? It's still good, I still enjoy it, and that's all that matters.

7 (A high 7. Might go up one day.)

Ufomammut & Lento – Supernaturals Record One

June 2007 • Supernatural Cat

I've always found collaborations between full bands to be interesting. The ones I've heard rarely ever work; everyone winds up stepping on each others' toes as the instruments fight for room in the mix and songwriting styles clash. It's hard to tell if Ufomammut and Lento have defied my contrived stereotype, as they seem to go together decently enough but I'm ultimately not too impressed by the result.

I'm a very mild fan of both Ufomammut and Lento (big surprise; they're both sludge metal bands), and their collaboration produced an album that sounded more or less exactly what I thought it would sound like—the sludgy styles of each band meld pretty seamlessly, while Ufomammut's usual psych-rock accents are similar icing here. Actually, it's so seamless that if I didn't know better I'd believe it's just a normal (maybe a bit doomier) Ufomammut album (it doesn't help that Lento's sound is a bit generic). As expected, the music is incredibly dense and heavy; the guitars and bass create an impenetrable wall of sound, and when the riffing stops for some psychedelic droning-out there's still quite a bit going on.

So on the surface, there's some pretty interesting stuff to hear; but ultimately the songs themselves don't do much to keep my attention. For the most part, the bands are simply jamming out together—which is understandable; I'm sure it's tough to coordinate a collaboration with some carefully-crafted songs that make everyone happy. But as a listener, such prolonged hammering away on a single chord or riff for so long gets tiresome.

That isn't to say they don't have their moments, of course; the tense buildup of "Maestoso" is pretty darn good as an intro to "The Overload", which has a pretty amazing riff. It's just a shame that one riff is all the song ever does. In fact, when they aren't creating a wall of noise with heavy riffing, some of the sounds they create are really neat. The beginning of "Infect Two" is a great example with the tribal drumming, droning bass, atmospherics, and background vocals.

There will be plenty of people out there who will probably love this album—people who live for huge, dense heaviness; Supernaturals Record One does exactly that and it does it well. Personally, I'm ambivalent; I feel like there is a lot of potential here that wasn't fully realized and it sounds better in theory than in practice. Still, this isn't a bad album and both bands remain solid on their own, even if I'm not totally sold on their collaboration.

5

One Starving Day – Atlas Coelestis

December 2009 • Beta-lactam Ring Records

One Starving Day's debut Broken Wings Lead Arms to the Sun was a bit dull and, while not terrible, I was disappointed because they had a good sound I really enjoyed, yet the songs themselves didn't do much with it. Fortunately, Atlas Coelestis is everything I'd hoped for from their second effort: they've kept the same despairing and gloomy sound while massively improving their songwriting to match.

Like their debut, this album is post-rock with a hint of sludge, but not quite in the same way as Godspeed or Mogwai do it; it has a very doomy quality that sounds like it could be easily confused for Neurosis' The Eye of Every Storm—heck, the vocalist even sounds like he could actually be Scott Kelly. I love Neurosis, so that all is a good thing for me. The guitars aren't really heavy, but there is still plenty of chunky distortion, spazzy drumming (one of the album's highlights, actually), and gritty bass along with some alien synths, sound clips, and other guest instruments like cello and xylophone. It's a really neat sound, and while it's not totally original they do it well.

As I mentioned, the songs themselves are also more interesting this time around. I found the debut to be a bit drawn-out and repetitive, but that more or less isn't the case anymore. While there is still repetition (it wouldn't be post-rock without it) it serves the songwriting better with some nice buildups that allow the instruments to breathe better without getting too stale. The typical loud/soft dynamic is here as well, but I feel like they keep things a bit less predictable—the way "Black:Black" jumps from drony guitar straight into a mathy groove with that great saxophone lead, then devolves back into droning but still with sax is really cool.

However it's still not quite as focused as I would like—sometimes the amount of instrumentation and lengthy tracks can lose their way for a little bit, mostly in the longer pieces. The band has a tendency to milk their buildups and draw out the bits with lots of layered arpeggio that just sort of go nowhere, and there is often weird dissonance in the slow quieter sections that have fast complex drumming. "Disclosure/Radiance" is a good example of the former with its very lengthy middle; the transition into the heavier rock ending is great but I don't think the lengthy buildup really justifies it. It's not a huge issue, though; the overall sound is still an improvement and there are enough straightforward parts to balance things out.

Still, I'm impressed; it's not a fantastic album but I'm glad I was right about the band's potential and I hope they continue the trend of improvement if they are working on new material. Of course, One Starving Day won't be for everyone, and since I have a long history with post-rock and Neurosis-style sludge this album fits in my library nicely, as it will with anyone else who might fit that niche.

6 (but, you know, a good 6.)