Composer and electronic musician Ben Vida has recorded solo as Bird Show on three previous releases for Kranky. This time out, he’s made Bird Show a band project. Although he’s based in Brooklyn, Vida travelled to Chicago to record, enlisting the aid of post-rock cohorts: Tortoise’s percussionists Dan Bitney and Josh Herndon, keyboardist Jim Baker, and bassist Josh Abrams.
Both Baker and Vida employ vintage synthesizers – an ARP 2600 and a Moog Voyager – as the lead instruments on the records. The complex of sound created by the synths encompasses a collage of avant-noise and bleep. Solo sections, such as Vida’s turn at the end of ’side one,’ are skronk prog feasts, reminiscent of 70s watersheds such as Sun Ra or, more conventionally, Tony Banks’ work on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and some of the odder moments on Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
The rhythm section, on the hand, crafts a background that hews closely to avant-jazz. As usual, Bitney and Herndon are a owerful pair, crafting interlocking grooves that are one part African-influenced polyrhythms and another On the Corner Era swinging fusion. Abrams, who has considerable experience in noise and field recording projects, is the glue that holds these two seemingly at odds sound environments together. He provides enough rhythmic urgency and indeed swing in his walking lines to coalesce with the Tortoise drummers, all the while keeping the melodic palette of his soloing and the harmonic inflections of his accompaniments outside enough to shadow the otherworldly timbres of the synthesists. This is particularly apparent on “Quintet Two,” a rousing improv that imagines an electrified free jazz/post rock/sci-fusion hybrid that’s truly progressive without ever seeming bloated as a result.
Tautly compelling and sonically adventurous, Vida’s found a winning lineup in the Bird Show Band. Rumour has it he’s currently at work on an opera. Dare we hope this quintet is in the ‘orchestra’ pit?
North Carolinian post-rockers Fin Fang Foom have aptly named their latest LP. Monomyth explores a darkly hued, weighty musical terrain. This is in part a natural extension of the music Fin Fang Foom has wrought for over a decade, which is heavily atmospheric yet underpinned with thrumming rhythmic energy.
But Monomyth also channels the adversity the band has experienced in recent years. Never mind all the usual woes of trying to make it in challenging times; FFF has tackled some truly big hurdles. Noteworthy among them is soldiering on under the specter of guitarist Michael Triplett’s near-death battle with spinal meningitis. Thus, if this is an LP that seems careworn and heavy-laden, the band’s earned the right to a little heavy music-making; they’ve got the scars to prove it. Fortunately, Monomyth never gets stuck in brooding head space; its visceral thrills are frequent and well-earned.
Australian singer/songwriter Via Tania’s latest LP, Moon Sweet Moon, was released this past week on the Hours label. Tania’s eclectic music-making combines elements of post-rock, IDM, and dreamy chamber pop. Moon Sweet Moon inhabits a delicate soundscape. This time out, Tania favors pitched percussion – vibraphones and glockenspiels – as well as keyboards. The result is a delicate, chiming background that elegantly supports her gently articulated, supple singing.
The last time we covered Lokai in these pages, it was to discuss their own dalliance with film scoring. But it’s worth returning to the Austrian duo to spotlight Transition, their sophomore LP and debut on the Thrill Jockey imprint.
Though both started out primarily as guitarists, Transition has a far more expansive timbral palette. The music is rife with chiming sustained intervals and brittle, percussive rustlings. Basic ideas start with primarily organic building blocks, including found objects such as duct work. Conversely, guitars coexist with synthesizers in a land of looping, effects pedals, and deliberate blurring of instrumental roles.
This contradiction provides an adroit series of juxtapositions, all laid out in spacious, gradually evolving instrumentals that take their time but deliver potently. Thus, at least in terms of influence, Lokai’s music owes as much of a debt to expansive experimental electronica as it does to post-rock.
Circa twenty years since its founding, Tortoise releases its sixth full length recording, Beacons of Ancestorship. The band’s first LP of new material since 2004’s It’s All Around You, Beacons also follows The Brave and the Bold, an eclectic collaboration with William Oldham on a multifaceted selection of pop covers, and 2006’s lovingly curated career-spanning boxed set A Lazarus Taxon. The members of the band have also been busy touring together and separately inhabiting a plethora of side projects and other musical outfits. Thus, while the five-year wait is understandable, one’s glad to see this project come to fruition. Beacons of Ancestorship is a rare beast for a mature effort. Strongly identifiable as Tortoise’s, it shows the group mindful of its legacy while simultaneously pushing at their musical boundaries.
“Gigantes†also weaves its way through an impressive assortment of polystylistic material; similarly, rhythmic underpinning allows for a host of distantly related sections to coalesce. Less successful in this regard is “Yinxianghechengqi,†where the use of juxtaposition blunts some of the more powerful buildups of the piece. Still, its thunderous walls of sound demonstrate an affinity for avant exploration that can take the group on thrilling musical excursions. “deChelly†is a all-too-brief example of delicate soundscaping.
The impressively fluid and virtuosic “Prepare Your Coffin†and “Penumbra†are somewhat reminiscent of the outstanding fusion of jazz and progressive rock found on David Sancious’s albums in the Seventies. Riffs played in guitar and bass, doubled in octaves, ornately metered yet constantly propulsive drumming, intriguing chord progressions and extended keyboard voicings, and soaring guitar solos placed up top. Both fusion and prog have been much-maligned over the years – post-rock’s continuation of their confluence has been as well – and the zesty yet airy arrangements of “Coffin†and “Penumbra†suggest that the detractors of these genres have, at best, painted with too broad a brush.
“Northern Something†is one of the cuts that pushes against the aforementioned boundaries of Tortoise’s language. Edgy, reiterated riffs and a militaristic drum refrain create a bellicose (perhaps current events-inspired?) ambience. “Monument Six One Thousandâ€Â adds Middle Eastern-inflected rhythms into the equation, pitting their undulating flexibility against brash quarter notes articulated as piquant rhythm guitar downstrokes. “Minors,†stands in stark contrast to these two. A carefully shaped, elegantly rendered piece, its funky rhythmic underpinning sidles up to lyrically deployed solos, affecting harmonies, and the album’s most winning melodies.
An excellent installment, well worth the wait, Beacons of Ancestorship is easily the best material Tortoise has released since 1998’s TNT.
A dozen years in, Mark Nelson’s Pan American project is still with the same label (Kranky) and still creating fascinating ambient soundscapes. But one shouldn’t mistake continuity for stagnation!
Indeed, there’s a combination of novelty and comfortable familiarity to be heard on the LP. Joined by bassists Jim Meyering and William Lowman and percussionist Steven Hess, Nelson pursues a more collaborative sound scheme than on some of his more soloistic recent recordings.  Hess’s co-authorship of two of the cuts, as well as his tasteful vibraphone playing and drumming, lends an organic quality to “For Aiming at the Stars†and “Dr. Robert Goddard in a Letter to H.G. Wells, 1932.â€
At the same time, there are echoes of Labradford, Nelson’s other outfit, to be found amidst the reverberant soundscapes here. “There Can Be No Thought of Finishing†and “Literally and Figuratively†feature deliciously sepulchral (and ever so well-recorded) bass drones; akin to bass-lines found on some of Labradford’s most winning work (E Luxo So, Fixed: :Content). Indeed, Meyering’s strummed chords provide a beautiful counterpart to Nelson’s treble-register harmonic pads.
“Is a Problem to Occupy Generations†demonstrates a capacity to be simultaneously ambient and experimental; its questing melodies are awash in reverb, arching towards an endpoint never quite to be reached. Conversely, the folk-like pentatonic phrases that inhabit “There is Always the Thrill of Just Beginning†seem to give the lie to much ambient-inspired “World†music, by eschewing its easily palatable background designs in favor of a more enigmatic – and far more interesting – hypnotic blurring.
Pan American remains a hardy, worthwhile endeavor; White Bird Release features some of Nelson’s most beautiful music to date.
To celebrate their tenth anniversary, Japanese post-rock collective Mono recorded their first collaboration with symphony orchestra: Hymn to the Immortal Wind. Given the band’s penchant for evincing classical signatures, this addition of acoustic instruments seems a natural step in their musical development.
What’s more, the band does a fine job of incorporating the orchestra without de-fanging their music’s rock-imbued heft. Thus, “Ashes in the Snow,†the album’s opener, builds from a gentle introduction, which sets up a repeated harmonic progression on which the whole dozen-minute piece will be based, to a thrilling wall of soaring guitars and strings with propulsive bass drums underneath. While limiting such a large canvass to a four measure chaconne could easily get tiresome, the constantly shifting instrumentation and frequent dynamic gradations keep “Ashes†a fascinating, slowly evolving tableau.
“Burial at Sea†spotlights an affecting neo-baroque classical nylon-string guitar-bass duo which gives away to a sweeping full-band prog-rock anthem. “Follow the Map†combines piano, acoustic guitars, and the occasional bluesy slide against chamber strings in a fetching extended passage; this is followed by a climactic orchestral tutti. Both compositions go much further than many prog/orch collaborations to effectively use the orchestra’s strengths with a keen awareness of balance and timbre.
“Silent Fight, Sleeping Dawn†features a beautifully mournful tune in the lower strings, set against delicate minor-key piano arpeggiations; the piece is somewhat reminiscent of Michael Nyman or Gavin Bryars in its minimalist aesthetic. “Pure as Snow†is similarly conceived, juxtaposing lush high strings against percussion in a portentous funeral march. Once again, the band organizes things around a phrase-long harmonic ground; and while the presentation is haunting, one occasionally wishes for more rhythmic variety. This concern is somewhat ameliorated on “The Battle to Heaven,†which incorporates drum kit more prominently.
“Everlasting Light†closes the recording with a stirring celestial vision; sustained guitar melodies are haloed by violins; then buoyed to a thrilling finale by a wall of glorious E-major. Hymn to the Immortal Wind is resoundingly successful.
Hard to believe that Austin rockers Explosions in the Sky have been making music together for ten years. If you haven’t heard 2007’s All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone, get thee to a record store! Better yet, get out and hear them this summer – tour dates below.
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TOUR DATES AND SPECIAL GUESTS
6/27 Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium with No Age and Eluvium
Matt Valentine and Erika Elder (professionally MV & EE) have a tellingly named publishing concern: Child of Microtones. While the duo’s latest recording with their band the Golden Road, Drone Trailer, does indeed include drones, the music never seems static. Rather, these children of microtonality create shimmering, slowly but constantly evolving soundscapes. Some of the compositions hew closer to bona fide songs of the alt-folk variety; “The Hungry Stones†puts the sonic experimentation on the edges of the proceedings and places Valentine’s gentle singing and acoustic guitar strumming front and center. On “Weatherhead Hollow,†the singing becomes more blurred, receding from the foreground into a tapestry of keening guitars, Fender Rhodes, and slowcore rhythms.
The title tune features a fetching introduction; drones swell, pedal steel swoons, and glissandi whirl about in the cracks between the notes. This yields to a countrified psych-folk song, in which trippy singing is distressed by layers of instrumental experimentation.  The album closer, “Huna Cosm,†presents arcing guitars and lap steel over a sepulchral bass ostinato in a burnished, rustic valediction.
Best known for his work with U.S. Maple, Todd Rittman has formed a new band: D. Rider. Its debut release is filled with heady experimental rock signatures: explosive percussion, handmade instruments, alternately wailing and jangly guitars, and portentous bass-lines. The Chicagoan trio mixes this with Windy-city post-rock features; in particular, judicious use of cornet and saxophone and minimalist layerings.
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Upon occasion, a balladic character inhabits Rittman’s cryptic, long-breathed vocals; crystal clear vocal harmonies also populate the most fetching portions of Mother of Curses. Indeed, the singing serves as a stark contrast to the often noise-laden character of the accompanying instruments. The whole doesn’t quite cogently cohere, but its spiky juxtapositions and somber-hued vamps take out rock in often fascinating directions.
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