somewhat of a nautical theme developing round here recently. dunno if it’s a response / reaction to the fact it’s been grey and grim and swathed in se7en-esque squalls of murky rain for as long as far back as i can remember (which ain’t that far).
like the last dolphins into the future record which i did righteously dig, this ploughs a similar sun blissed salty sea kissed watery furrow. but where the dolphins record meandered into epic new age pschye territory this is all dreamy pop noise.
the album’s a (conceptual) companion piece to rachel carson’s science-as-poetry book, ‘the sea around us’:
but the falling rains were the symbol of the dissolution of the continents. from the moment the rain began to fall, the lands began to be worn away and carried to the sea. it is an endless, inexorable progress that has never stopped – the dissolving of the rocks, the leaching out of their contained minerals, the carrying of the rock fragments and dissolved minerals to the ocean. and over the eons of time, the sea has grown ever more bitter with the salt of the continents.
all very well i hear you mutter, but what does it all sound like? sea noises committed to tape (or whatever the digital noun would be) from italian and philippinian(?) waves. music recorded in dudes bedroom, colorado. all electronically stirred together into something quite beauteous.
the influence of two chubby hairy guys locked in gentle musical coitus (kevin shields & brian wilson) hangs over proceedings like a bruised peach of swollen sun. but it’s more interesting that their myspace influences are a curious mix of naturalist-writer-scientists and orchestral, futuro-space age bloop, bbc radiophonics, easy listening, shoegazers, tv composers, lounge exotica and (hypnogogic) pop whackos. whether entirely serious or not i insist that somebody right bloody now give the pair of them an obscene pile of cash and let them loose on a studio with whatever toys, bells and whistles they can find and tinker with.
it’s a concept album of sorts (isn’t it? he boldly proclaims…). synergized with a book, a graceful musical cohesion throughout the album bound together by salt-water glue, planetary / ecology / oceanic themes recurring. concept, non? but one stripped of precociousness, pretentiousness, portentousness. rather it’s like golden warm honey being poured down yr earholes. delicate, intricate, shimmering swells of electricity lovingly muxed up with textured underwater vox and fuzzy guitar tones. a combination of the organic and technologic that is an unexpected joy from start to finish.
