ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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Mothlite
THE FLAX OF REVERIE SOUTHERN RECORDS 21.04.08 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk There’s one thing you can guarantee when doing these reviews for Vanguard online – and that’s variety. Last month Ross who runs the site sent me Bryan Adam’s new album; this month he warned me that he was sending something very ‘leftfield’, which sounded intriguing. What turned up was this album by ‘band’ Mothlite. The two main protagonists here are Daniel O’Sullivan who is described on the press gubbins as being a composer/arranger. He’s previously released stuff under various avant garde guises including Guapo, Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses and Sunn O))) Not entirely sure what all the closed brackets on the end are meant to represent, but I guess that’s intellectual types for you. He’s also collaborated with stacks of other musos including Current 93 and Alexander Tucker (whom I have a hazy recollection of seeing at last year’s excellent ATP festival) The other main participant is Antti Uusimaki – a producer and engineer from Finland, who has previously twiddled knobs for the likes of Brian Eno, Barry Adamson and Tindersticks, as well as forming his own band Panic DHH (Digital Hardcore Recordings) This album only has 6 tracks, but is 49 minutes long – so unlikely to be a bunch of two minute three-chord pop-punk sing-alongs then. The first track ‘Riverside’ starts off quite pleasantly with some gentle squiggly guitar picking; and atmospheric over-lapping vocals. But halfway in there’s a change of tempo and it goes all over-dramatic with doom-laden strings and the odd spot of flute chucked in for good measure. Track 2 ‘The One in the Water’ has a piano lead intro, and some odd out-of-step ethereal vocals, and then the 11 minute centre piece ‘The Untouched Dew’ starts off with more portentous violins, hushed murmuring and parping oboes. But ends with some reverberating guitar quivering that wouldn’t sound out of place in some bad 1950’s sci-fi B-movie. The album continues in this everything but the kitchen sink style; and at some points even degenerates into jazz noodling. It’s a shame really as the bits where they just hold back on the histrionics are quite pleasant listening. Artists like this tend to strive to craft a mood or an ambience; rather than actual ‘traditionally’ structured songs – hence the phrase ‘ambient’ music I guess. But bands like Boards of Canada appreciate the value of restraint – you put on an album of theirs and nothing basically happens for an hour but it does create a certain mood. The over-dramatising on this album just grates after a while - I have absolutely no problem with artists taking their music seriously; but there needs to be a certain level of humility for it to remain palatable. Whenever I listen to music like this I can’t help but imagine the artists doing something really mundane at home – perhaps settling down with a cuppa and a hob-nob to watch Countdown in the afternoon. That tends to shatter the illusion of the ‘tortured’ artist. www.southern.net |