Video: Oceans - We Are Ruins

Oceans "We Are Ruins" in HD from Hannah Rosner on Vimeo.

Review: Oceans - Nothing Collapses

Label: Copper Lung Records

Released: March 24, 2009

I have long believed that artists only are only half of the creative force behind art. The other half of the creation is the interpretation. Often, the greatest art allows for significant breadth of interpretation even as it guides the very same. Most often though, the artist errs on the side of doing too much and closing too many doors.

This is particularly true in music, but every once in awhile, an album comes along that acts in a sense as an open-ended soundtrack to a movie that will play in the listener's head. Nothing Collapses is one such album. In a sense the music is in the background, but not in a passive way. It's twisting, turning rhythms and layered sound paints a vivid scene with both a clear point and endless possibility. What's best is that Oceans trusts its listeners to do their part, to participate in something great, to not just listen, but to act (at least on the stage of their own minds).

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 9/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Strangers Die Every Day - Aperture for Departure

Label: This Generation Tapes

Released: March 4, 2008

There are two approaches to marrying rock and classical. The first takes the worst of both and dummies them down for the least common denominator. Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Metallica's S&M have more in common with those old Hooked on Classics albums from the early 80s than they do with either classical or rock. They merely try to superimpose one genre onto the other and call it a marriage, but the simple fact is, it's not. However, for those interested in taking a step outside the mainstream, the relationship between the genres did finally come to fruition...in Godspeed You! Black Emperor. But now, Strangers Die Every Day has succeeded in this as well.

It may seem that being the other band in the genre is a slap in the face, but considering how earth-shaking Godspeed and the related A Silver Mt Zion project are, being second is hardly a point against Strangers Die Every Day. They address the glaring weanesses of both rock and classical, rock's being its inability to break out of its own confines and be truly dynamic and classical's is that it usually feels like the notes are being read rather than experienced.

Aperture for Departure, on the other hand allows the rock to slip its bonds and explore a broader musical landscape. At the same time, it loosens classical up with an off-kilter rawness that typical classical performances miss. It derives its dark mood from the classical layer while getting its drive and its edge from the rock rhythms beneath. On each track, the band strives more for emotional range than technical perfection, recognizing that rock's beauty stems from being blemished not pristine. This allows the music to build into manic noise or restrain itself to quiet passages that have real meaning to the listener, the rock listener in particular.

Overall, Aperture for Departure is classical in a technical sense, but its heart is rock n roll. The band's willingness to be loose and noisy makes for a vulgar classical even when the rock parts aren't overt. It is not simply classical music played with rock instruments, but its own genre that recognizes the two can enhance each other. It finds a common ground between them that has an almost folk nature in its connection with its listeners. No, it's not quite Godspeed, but it's very, very close, making it not just one of the most ambitious albums I've heard in some time, but also one of the best. There was only one 30 second passage on the whole album that failed to completely captivate me. It's that good from start to finish.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

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Myspace: Leagues

Leagues is a two-man show featuring Prize Country's Aaron Blanchard on guitar and bass and Andrew Gormley on drums. Leagues takes a more fluid and layered approach than Prize Country, but are by no means lighter. They express an interest in scoring films and that seems like a logical goal as their music is made up of anything but encapsulated pop songs. These are textured mood pieces that run the gamut from quiet and introspective to loud and manic. If these tunes end up in a film, I'd love to see it, because it'd have to be a real freak out.

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Review: Long Distance Calling - Satellite Bay

Label: Viva Hate Records

Released: September 21, 2007

When dealing with any of the post-this-or-that sub-genres, you're almost always going to have music that is a challenge to even the most patient ear and largely inaccessible to most everyone else. There are, of course, exceptions and Long Distance Calling is one of them. Their strong layered approach can be spellbinding both with a quick listen or a critical ear.

Throughout Satellite Bay, Long Distance Calling creates layers ranging from ambient noise to metal crunch, varying the music by subtly adding and removing elements. The care taken in constructing their music is evident from the first track which takes five minutes to build from it's quiet beginnings to its heavy climax. A pop song is over in less time than Long Distance Calling merely sets the stage. In both the airy and the dense sections, each component seems to be encapsulated as a standalone object that is nonetheless integrated perfectly into the whole. The ambient noise, seemingly multiple layers of drums and bass, echoy and crunchy guitar layers and voice samples in lieu of traditional vocals come and go as the music swells and recedes. This approach relies very little on any but the most subtle melody.

Half way through the album, it could end without complaint, yet the two truly heavy songs are yet to come. "The Very Last Day" begins as an ominous war march that ultimately becomes a crushing heaviness and "Built Without Hands" compresses that dense sound even further. Just before the intensity becomes too much, Satellite Bay draws to a close in much the way it began.

Long Distance Calling calls on the work of a number of experimental bands, from Isis' droning weight to Explosions in the Sky's noddling expansiveness to Husker Du's controlled noise. In the end though, they've concocted these ingredients into something quite its own and that something both pushes the limits for those who would takes its path and carefully pulls along the less adventurous listener until they can't escape.

Rating: 9/10

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"Into Your Dream"

Check out the review of On the Wing Now.

Review: Foreign Born - On the Wing Now

Label: Dim Mak Records

Released: August 21, 2007

A lot of bands these days have been rehashing the 80s, but very few of them bring anything particularly new to the table. For me, it's really dull to have your own teenage years spit back to you as if it's new, so it's refreshing to hear a band do something interesting with it. Foreign Born are pretty steeped in the 80s, but they are most definitely not regurgitating it back. Instead, they take that era of post-punk, new-wave and pop, dig back to its influences and come up with their own sound.

Foreign Born's guitarist, Lewis Pesacov, has a degree in Composition and considering how carefully their songs are constructed from influences ranging from the Beatles to Mott the Hoople to early INXS, it's really not a surprise. Unlike many trained musicians though, Foreign Born don't find themselves constrained by that training. Instead, they've created an album that ebbs and flows in layers, from thin to thick and back again. They don't rely on overt hooks, but instead on an implied catchiness that makes the songs memorable as a whole rather than just a riff here and there.

After releasing two EPs, On the Wing Now is Foreign Born's first full-length. Not only is it full of material that could share a stage easily with indie, emo, punk or post-rock, but it also makes an open-ended promise for the future.

Rating: 8/10

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