-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Ambient * Ethereal *
Artist..: Bailterspace
Album...: Trinine
GENRE....: Indie
STYLE....: Shoegaze, Noise, Experimental
LABEL....: Fire SCENE.....: 2015-02-06
BITRATE..: 912 kbps avg STORE.....: 2013-00-00
ENCODER..: FLAC 1.2.1 -8 -V TRACKS....: 12
SIZE.....: 270.2MB SOURCE....: CD
URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailter_Space
- TRACKLIST
1 Trinine 3:23
2 Painted Window 3:35
3 Today 4:00
4 Tri5 4:05
5 In the World 4:18
6 Plan Machine 4:19
7 Open 5:18
8 Together 3:06
9 Silver 3:52
10 Gamma Tram 0:39
11 Films of You 2:24
12 TapenZloop 1:39
Total Playtime: 40:38
Following a triumphant return last year that saw them tearing through the
main stage at the Laneway Festival and further cement their deserved
reputation as one of the loudest bands of all-time, the original lineup of
New Zealand legends Bailterspace now unleash a new album of thundering
psychgaze with trinine.
Alister Parker creates more jaw-dropping guitar tones in each song here than
most bands could even dream of in their lifetime. Brent MacLachlan's tight
drum kit snaps and cracks and drives behind the squalling riffs as John
Halvorsen's bass grumbles and forms a thudding atmosphere. The barely
contained power of the band always pushing at the seams, as few bands have
ever harnessed the ability to walk that edge quite like Bailterspace. Parker
continues to drop vocals in almost as if he has to find a quick hit
in-between the wall of noise madness behind him. Returning to record together
again in New York City, the trio don't look back for a second as they fashion
a howling and maddeningly hazy beast of an album that challenges any band
today to match it for intensity as it careens about wounded and dazed through
the city streets, forming a soundtrack for late nights gone sideways in an
unfamiliar town.
Far from nostalgic for the 90's, the band has built upon 2012's Parker and
McLachlan produced Strobosphere to continue an amazing streak of powerful
performances here, showcasing a thrilling tenacity and manic mix of noise and
melody. Where Strobosphere was coated in a 2am blur, trinine is the confusion
and menace lurking in the hours that follow. Bailterspace continue to remind
us that we need guitar heroes now more than ever, providing a vital offering
to those thirsty for six-stringed salvation in an age of laptops and
pretenders.
Before Bailterspace there was The Gordons. Formed 1980, Christchurch, New
Zealand. Future Shock 1981, still electrifying. Then, there was Nelsh Bailter
Space. Then Bailter Space. Alister Parker (guitar, bass), Brent McLachlan
(drums/percussion, samples) John Halvorsen (bass, guitar) - the core. Hamish
Kilgour (The Clean) and Ross Humphries (The Terminals, the Pin Group) came.
Then they went.
Over seventeen years Bailterspace mobilized recording technologies to capture
audio. They organised noise. Audio was reproduced into seven different
longplayer phonographs. Tanker, Thermos, Robot World, Votura, Wammo, Capsul
and Solar 3. Plus manifold extended player (EP) phonographs. These were
disseminated via Matador Records and Flying Nun Records. The populace
procured the multiple reproductions of this audio. They were amazed at what
they heard.
From Christchurch, which is also the only air departure terminal for
Antarctica, the band migrated north. First Wellington in New Zealand, then
New York, in the United States of America. In many urban settlements
Bailterspace performed their work to the public. It was a mosaic of radiant
frequencies. Metrics and decibels. In 1999 the mass media communications
outlet Pitchfork described them as "a huge mess of sound that's
simultaneously beautiful, jagged, atonal, and supremely melodic".
*
Fierce nasal walrus guitar tones, a bristling bass attack and afterthought
slacker vocals... New ZealandÆs Bailterspace mightÆve once relocated to their
spiritual home alongside Sonic Youth in New York but their ultimate
destination proves to be nowhere on this planet.
First active in the late 80's/early 90's on the Flying Nun label before
disappearing in 2004, the band are now back in operation again and new album
'Trinine' is proof they havenÆt reformed just to play some previous record in
full on behalf of a promoter. Instead this album fits neatly into a year
which has so far witnessed guitar havoc from Thee Oh Sees, Pissed Jeans and
our own homegrown Drenge.
While the lack of obvious hooks and song structures might throw off the
casual listener, repeated listens reveal yearning Dinosaur Jr. or even
Ride-esque melodies hiding just below the guitarmac. That and some great
sounds that often happen only the once so you end up listening out for them
knowing itÆs a now or never taste û a good example is the ending of the third
track, æTodayÆ when suddenly all the effects come off and youÆre left with
one last clean guitar chord shooting off into the ether.
If the first few songs have cleared a runway through the forest, then the
second half of the album sees the band take off in search of their natural
habitat: space. ôItÆs as if all the stars were falling down,ö mutters main
man Alister Parker in the intoxicating æOpenÆ. ôGoodbye world.. see you
later.ö he says, glancing back through a tiny round window. With the controls
set to (the heart of the) stun (sorry), our guitar slung space invaders
venture off boldly wherever the songs might take them. And sometimes thatÆs
not very far...æGamma TramÆ is all over in forty seconds like a tiny asteroid
shooting past. Elsewhere Can-like grooves hypnotise, and æSilverÆ recalls
London post space rockers Spork at their dreamiest.
ItÆs almost a shock when some more straightforward vocals appear again on
æFilms of YouÆ. Then we end back where we began, with the heavy machinery of
æTapenzloopÆ clearing another runway ready to land.
*
After returning from a 13-year hiatus with Strobosphere in 2012, New
Zealand's Bailterspace quickly followed it up with Trinine, their second
offering for Fire Records. Recorded by the original lineup of guitarist
Alister Parker, drummer Brent McLachlan, and bassist John Halvorsen, this set
directly reflects the trio's lineage, it also ups the ante of guitar rock in
the 21st century. Though Strobosphere was muscular, it lacked some of the
group's trademark, textured dynamics. Not so here. Trinine looks back while
taking on the present concretely. It is a moodier, more experimental, and
more sinister affair overall. While Bailterspace's own frenetic, layered
tonalities are at work in the "sound" of these compositions, they are
underscored by a subtle melodicism, spaciousness, and rhythmic invention that
looks back simultaneously to Tago Mago-era Can and early Sonic Youth α la
EVOL. The opening title track with its lyric cadence and phrasing, balanced
by multi-tracked, low-tuned guitars and wide-open, throbbing basslines, is a
case in point. "Tri5," with its drum and guitar attack mixed far above the
barely discernible vocals, is more straight-ahead, but Parker's wall of noise
is interrupted mid-cut by a single-string vamp, pushed by McLachlan's
skittering beat and Halvorsen's solid drone bassline; the storm erupts even
more cataclysmically later on, with the vocal being the only thread holding
it all together. Other standouts include "In the World," which commences
hypnotically along a single undistorted guitar riff that is all but dominated
by a two-note bassline and constant snare and tom-tom pulse. Just under three
minutes in, it leaves that all behind and enters a maelstrom of counter
melody and increasing distortion until it explodes. "Open" creates a taut
monotony that leaves the listener desiring a meltdown that never quite
emerges. Trinine only falters in the last quarter, where it engages in
outright experimentation to mixed result. Though "Silver" maintains a
songlike structure even as it enters the frenzied domain of its predecessors,
"Gamma Tram," "Films of You," and the demo-esque closer "Tanzenloop" all feel
unfinished. Despite these shortcomings, Trinine is a winner: the trio's
willingness to simultaneously reflect its influences so openly, yet take
chances with its own tropes and established sound, makes for deeply
satisfying -- and sometimes headscratching -- listening.
-=- SHGZ -=-
P.S.
** Thanks ***
*** BCC FNT IPC SSR ***
*** For Knowing Where The Music Is At ***
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