Beings - Lanterns on the Lake

Track list:

1. Of Dust & Matter
2. I'll Stall Them
3. Faultlines
4. The Crawl
5. Send Me Home
6. Through The Cellar Door
7. Beings
8. Stepping Down
9. Stuck For An Outline
10. Inkblot

Running time: 41 minutes
Released: 2015

New music time... released only this week even. Beings would have already been covered by the alphabetical ordering of this project so this listen is quite literally my first. I picked up Gracious Tide Take Me Home after a very wet Latitude in 2012, loved it and thus when I saw Lanterns on the Lake had new music coming out I simply bought sound unheard. Silly, perhaps, but I'm comfortable enough to permit such folly - after all that cuts to the heart of the reasoning behind this blog: I have too much that I don't appreciate!

First listens are rarely a fair appreciation of everything a record has to offer, but first impressions are generally amongst the most interesting. We shall see.

It opens with monitor-like beeping and a muted strumming over a straining squeal of a sound - long drawn out notes - backing up a very distinctive vocal. As the song goes the strumming is replaced, or augmented with keys, doing the same job of breaking up the backing in a similar manner. I rather like the atmosphere but the music doesn't give me anything concrete to latch on to that would allow me to say that it is a great start.

I'll Stall Them has a more rounded sound, more immediately identifiable with the group's prior work. Warm swirls of overlapping themes circle the lyric. There is a bit more life, more volume perhaps, than some earlier songs - its definitely from the same roots but feels a little less insular as a result. An openness in the melodies, the strings especially, speaks to a big picture rather than a closed shop. Today is all about recovery after a busy week. I have a lot to do this weekend but taking time out for things like this is important to making me feel human again and stop me thinking about how crappy the world is given events in Paris last night. Faultlines carries a sorrow, but it does it with a cadence and pace that makes it anything but wallowing. Richness of sound, lines laid atop each other to build a depth, a cushioning feel. My left index finger is hurting at the top joint when I type, this is an irritant and I hope it is temporary as I have targeted getting up to date on Actual Play write-ups this weekend in addition to a couple of listens. Thus far I am enjoying this, though.

A very different type of melody - thick and again shared between guitar and keys is the opening of The Crawl. Gone are the textured layers here to start, though they begin to build up again their use is more sparse than on previous tunes, with the bulk of the structure carried by the drums, which have a nice rumble in their pattern, and the one clear melody. These two elements mesh really nicely, taking my ear away from the vocal, which feels odd. Lanterns on the Lake always appealed because of the nesting of their song inside the webs the music created but here the vocal is less appealing, fading. Now we have two shorter songs, the first a simple piano melody that builds up an aura of other bits and pieces rather than sharing focus around. The vocal is in places so soft as to be barely audible. The second piece is a brighter sound clear and clean notes as opposed to the previous use of sustain, at least in the opening. I prefer the second track, though it appears to lose its sense of self about two thirds through and devolve into mediocre guitar wailing, rather ruining the appreciation of the early segment.

The title track is longer again - 6 and a half minutes. This feels very much in the vein of their prior output, much of which is labeled shoegaze in a staggeringly negative genre-typing, as if introspection is something to be avoided. Too much of it can cause problems, of course - but so, too, can too little. This is a slow piece and reminds me as much of post rock (a staggeringly pretentious genre-typing), early This Will Destroy You in particular. I like the melodies, but the vocal degrades to ill-advised edginess in places, a style that really does not suit our singer's voice.

There is a real feeling of detachment about the opening of Stepping Down. This feels like something off another album, darker, distant, emptier. The vocal is the focal point when it is in play, and that provides the continuity from the tracks before, but soundscape-wise this is much bleaker, lonely and cold. Uncaring. Its well crafted and I rather like the track but it feels a little out of place. I am immediately drawn back in by the construction of Stuck for an Outline though. Nice engaging guitars, which my ear clings to amid the swell of the vocal and strengthening percussion of the climactic moments. Oddly I am left with the feeling that the vocals let this album down a little, which is a surprise to me. I think I will need to listen again in other circumstances where my own words are not my mind's primary stream of consciousness in order to get a fairer appraisal. I definitely need to listen to this again soonish in order to let the tracks bed in. It's bound to be better when it is more familiar.

The record comes to a close with a pointless little meander, an instrumental which really offers very little at first glance. As I close this post in turn, I am left feeling good about the purchase in general despite a couple of apparent flaws and foibles.

Another Language - This Will Destroy You

Track List:

1. New Topia
2. Dustism
3. Serpent Mound
4. War Prayer
5. The Puritan
6. Mother Opiate
7. Invitation
8. Memory Loss
9. God's Teeth

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 2014

Its been a long time since the last update; some busy days, evenings and also Dragon Age: Inquisition have got in the way. It's not a wobble in commitment yet, just a question of finding time and energy.

To end the drought, another album from the current year - see I do still buy music! TWDY (too much effort to type out their name every time) are one of two post-rock groups from whom I have picked up albums in the last couple of months - Jakob's Sines being the other one.
 

I am not (I almost typed was not, but in truth I have not listened to this enough yet to put it into the past tense) really sure what I expect from this album. Probably something solid but unspectacular. I have, in fact, deliberately avoided listening to it in the car because it was coming up fairly soon on here... which means it has basically been sat here for a couple of months with no attention. Deliberately not listening so that I could listen, but then not listening. Confused? I am. Despite being a little on the tired side, it is over a week now, so I am going to press on with this.

New Topia opens very differently to what I was expecting. It is sparse and spacey for a good minute before the more anticipated guitar melodies arrive. It retains that more open aspect even thereafter, even after it all kicks off there is a vastness about the sound, lent by long sustained notes behind the frenetic core. I do not like that core much though, and I am glad when the track closes. Dustism (odd title) is much more what I would have expected in terms of structure. It is more open, again, but melodic in a way that reminds me of tracks from their self-titled album. This is very pleasant but ultimately no particularly engaging. A nice accompaniment to some other activity - but not music I really want to just sit here and listen to. Just as I type that, the flux of the song brings it more body, and with it more interest, without fundamentally changing the overall effect of the track and as that swell takes us to the end of the music I feel it won me around.

I am starting to get the feeling that this album will be what I expected. It is far too early to say that for sure, but the third song has now started with a similar sort of opening, though as it proceeds it remains too empty to really conform to the template. Something of a nothing track, until it "breaks up" and suddenly gains a body. I am not a fan of the "break up" effect; it makes me wonder if my disc was scratched or something. I am not much of a fan of this track either as the emptiness was replaced with cacophony rather than a sound I can appreciate.

The fourth track is called "War Prayer" - that is a fairly big (and maybe ill-advised) statement in the modern world. It does not live up to that from the outset, but with 7 minutes to run it has plenty of chance to find its feet and start belting out devotionals. There is a moodiness about this track that is fitting and it is building steadily; probably the most compelling tune so far. About half way through the rumbling building comes crashing down, leaving an eeriness. Unfortunate, because it seems to have killed the interest in doing so. The change up was not unwelcome, but the lack of anything substantial to follow in the next couple of minutes was. It comes alive again for the final minute, but the spark has gone and this is a hollow husk of what could have been. The longest track on the disc gives way to the shortest, which is making me think of someone I cannot quite drag a name out for. Frustrating! It is all open, empty, but warmly so. Surprisingly this is the best track so far, perhaps because it does not outstay its welcome.

My impressions thus far are not favourable. This album feels too wishy-washy, no one thing. There is a lot of sparse "big sky" craft but it lacks the invention to make that work, the subtleties in the space. I would say the album is about 90% background with a paltry 10% of the effort in the foreground demanding your time. It is imbalanced and thus not grabbing me. Maybe this move to ambient sounds over a stronger melody is what they reference with the title, but I doubt it.

Invitation has a bit more weight to it, which is good, but a lot of that weight is comprised of a drum loop that is a bit too prominent for my ear, which is not - like someone burst firing a machine pistol with a silencer in a tank full of water. OK, my simile is a bit of a stretch. I liked the rest of the craft on that track though, and whilst is recedes into the sleepy waters that made up the opening three quarters of the disc, Memory Loss has a little more depth, making it quite enjoyable. It is emphasizing the tiredness I am feeling, though... the consistency of the sound, the slow pace - I feel my eyelids drooping.

Only one track to go. If nothing else, this has kept me up until a point I can reasonably crash out and stamped on any desire to make ill-advised purchases or get sucked in to anything else at this time of night. At this point that is pretty much the best thing I have to say for listening to TWDY's latest work, but it does not represent a fair reading. Overall I have been disappointed in Another Language but not enough for me to cull it yet. Having bought it, I should give it a few listens at least so it can bed in. Maybe on Monday's commute. As I said earlier, I think it might be better as background to other activity and driving offers that. Quite apart from the fact that it does often take a few listens to really appreciate something.

Edit 2 Dec 2014: after keeping this album playing out and back the last two days (3 full plays) whilst commuting it has not grown on me any. I like The Puritan, still, but the other tracks leave me with... nothing, suggesting that as a whole it singularly failed to engage me. Which is a shame.

All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone - Explosions in the Sky

Track list:

1. The Birth and Death of the Day
2. Welcome, Ghosts
3. It's Natural to Be Afraid
4. What Do You Go Home To?
5. Catastrophe and the Cure
6. So Long, Lonesome

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 2007

I am not sure I have ever listened to this album properly before. I used to have it in my library twice, once ripped, once gifted, but removed the duplication a while back. I have vague inklings of not getting on with EitS in the way I did with Mogwai or This Will Destroy You or, more recently, Jakob, who operate in similar spheres. Interesting to give this a chance again.

When starting the listen, I am immediately turned off by a screeching to the guitar-driven wall that hits my ears. Thankfully the wailing sound abates and more melodic tones emerge, swell then fall before another wall of more gravelly sound hits. I am not really getting on with The Birth and Death of the Day. The melodies are nice enough but not demanding, and the fuller sounds when they come in are less musical than they might be. The percussion is too loud for my liking and overall the tunes when they come through from the rest are just a little too... plain?

Not sure what I feel is missing here... maybe a layer effect? Perhaps the genius line to draw in my ear? Whatever it is I am perceiving this album as somewhat removed from me. Maybe it is just that I do not have a context for the tracks - they are not generating mental images for me, they have not been on the road with me and I am simply less familiar with them than other "post rock" from my library. Whatever it is, I am not getting something from this listen that would, ideally, be there. There are some nice sections in the tracks, but also periods where either I find the sound uncomfortable (like the opening of the album) or bland. Without something to root these tunes and cement them in my mind's ear, they are washing over me and falling to the ground like rain off a plastic mac.

Then we hit a movement in It's Natural to Be Afraid -  from about 4 minutes into the 13+ minute piece - and I hit a bit I like. I can see what people like about Explosions in the Sky... it is very reminiscent of This Will Destroy You (who, coming later, were probably influenced by EitS rather than the other way around). This reminiscence, this familiarity, is engaging. I find I like this track, whereas the two before I could happily leave. I still cannot put my finger on what specifically makes the difference, and the ending of the track ruins the positive impression a little but this will be kept, even if the rest gets junked (as seems possible).

There is a busyness to the keyboard in What Do You Go Home To? which obliterates the calm of the pace and the serenity of the rest of the sculpted sounds. I am not a fan; I can hear some nice lines behind it but whilst the contrast is assuredly deliberate I feel too much is lost in its application to make the track an interesting listen. Actually that might be a thread here: there is generally a little too much going on for my liking. When one player goes quiet, the others do not necessarily follow. Deliberate contrast is imposed in a number of cases. One instrument staying strong or persistent where otherwise we might get some space to breathe. Trying to put this another way... it feels like guys bouncing off each other a little more than constructively working together to construct the final work. That can be awesome when it comes off - and I suspect many folk would see this album as coming off very well.

I do not fit in that camp. The songs here just fail to touch my soul enough and only two will be kept, with So Long, Lonesome being the second. I like title, I like the "chorus" refrain and the rest of the instrumentation does not do any of the small things that somehow unknowingly combined to make the majority of these songs just fall flat for me. I would not say that I think All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is a bad album; it is just one that I cannot find a place for. Other works exist to fill this hole and without that magic something that commends music to my heart, this disc falls short of appreciation.