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Current mood:  argumentative
Welcome to another edition of CD Impressions, the bi-weekly
feature at JPP that allows the music writers to offer brief opinions
and critiques on recent albums. On the plate this fortnight are reviews
for new records from post-hardcore legend Thrice, veteran guitar
rockers Built to Spill, the moody and oblique Italian trio Father
Murphy, and noise pop provocateurs No Age.
 …And He Told Us to Turn to the Sun
Artist: Father Murphy
Label: Aagoo
Release Date: 06/08/09
7 out of 10
If
“Walking on Sunshine” is one of your favorite songs, Father Murphy
might not put a little sunny skip in your step. An Italian trio
seemingly equally inspired by Bad Seeds records as doomful cathedral
organ and Gregorian chant, they eschew almost any semblance of pop
melody in favor of slow, pounding rhythms to break up the foreboding
quiet. They know what they are (chirped/grunted on “At That Time I
Guess We Misunderstood”: “Are we evil?/We are evil!”), and we know what
they’re not (poised to appear on the latest infomercial for some “Songs
of Faith” CD compilation), but it’s hard to know where these enigmatic
three are going. From the opening notes of leadoff “We Were Colonists,”
you’d swear you were in for a gritty rock n’ roll treat with its drum
pop, clipped chords and Freddie Murphy’s strangled vocals, but the
arrangement unravels into bursting knots of clatter covering up the
dry, droning wail. The dirges sprawl out from there, either pumped out
or cut up by a gothic keyboard and impelled by singing either yelping
or muted without sense—were they possessed by some unholy terror during
the recording sessions?
Busier than they initially seem,
these songs are made out of the simplest elements imaginable—steady
guitar strums, tap-clap percussion, keys that chirp lonely or bleed in
a cold bath—but as mood makers, there’s never any doubt that what
you’re hearing is profoundly upsetting. Their propensity for
fragmentation is also noteworthy, breaking up the two-minute track “So
Now You Have to Choose Between My Two (Black) Lungs” into separate
(black) halves, though the peculiar percussion steeped in
faux-amateurish aftershocks alleviate the dread. And the ten-minute
closer rambles menacingly through at least four different song ideas—I
guess you don’t need to be compositionally claustrophobic to make the
listener really uneasy. Not a fun listen, of course, but worth at least
one run through to better determine your tolerance. (Matt Medlock)
http://www.justpressplay.net/music/music-news/6058-cd-impressions-october-19-2009.html
 | Currently listening:
Black Sheep
By Julian Cope
Release date: 2008-10-14 |
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11:19 AM
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