-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: MusΘe MΘcanique
ALBUM...: From Shores Of Sleep
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Chamber Folk, Chamber Pop, Indie Folk, Neo-Psychedelia
STYLE...: Dream Pop, Ambient Americana, Folk Rock, Indie Pop
YEAR....: 2014
LABEL...: Glitterhouse
COUNTRY.: USA
PLACE...: Portland, OR
FORMED..: 2006
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 833 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 10
SIZE....: 274.95 MB
URL..: https://www.facebook.com/museemecanique
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_M%C3%A9canique_(band)
- TRACKLIST
1 O, Astoria 4:24
2 The Lighthouse And The Hourglass 3:59
3 The Open Sea 5:00
4 The Man Who Sleeps 4:14
5 A Wish We Spoke 3:47
6 Castle Walls 4:40
7 The World Of Silence 3:43
8 Along The Shore 4:53
9 Cast In The Brine 5:30
10 The Shaker's Cask 6:10
Total Playtime: 46:20
* -EN- *
Following MusΘe MΘcanique's full-length debut, Hold This Ghost, by a full six
years, 2014's From Shores of Sleep was conceived not only as a full album but
as a single piece. Songwriters Micah Rabwin and Sean Ogilvie constructed the
ten songs with a journey in mind. The result is a concept album described on
its crowdsourcing web page as "a story of sails and shorelines, seas and
dreams." As also reflected in the title, a maritime theme and imagery run
throughout the record, amongst lyrics of anticipations, endings, and the
adventures in between: "Let's go sail along the shore a while/Brother, we can
race the rowers and the steams/Herons and the eagles cross the amusement
park/Where we can ride the carousel." The course is an impressionistic one
through a series of vignettes more than through any discernable plot, and the
watery lyrical landscapes mesh with the band's atypical orchestral folk
musical palette to achieve a dreamy, escapist ambience. Employing a wide
range of instruments, including electric guitars, synths, strings, woodwinds,
glockenspiel, French horn, and more -- even sounds of water ("The Open Sea")
and gulls ("Along the Shore") -- the colorful but not cluttered sound is
diligently arranged by Ogilvie and Rabwin and mixed by studio veteran Tony
Lash (Elliott Smith, Hellogoodbye). They achieve lushness with a still
tangible, folky substance; ghosts of traditional music creep through, as on
the stomping rhythms and distinct saw and accordion sounds in "A Wish We
Spoke." The album's melodies are often restrained, its character built more
from timbres, layers, progressions, and rhythmic transport. "The World of
Silence," a sonically complex carousel waltz, has brass, electric guitars,
accordion, strings, and percussion among the bricolage that builds, then
falls away to a single, unresolved piano chord. The relatively sparser "Along
the Shore" centers on arpeggiated piano and acoustic guitar, though they're
never alone; the ambient, vibrating seascape is always near. Musically
symbolic water (on occasion, literal, via recordings) carries the listener on
waves from track to track, making for an accomplished symphonic poem, or at
least an indie pop version of one. For any seeking diversion, From Shores of
Sleep is a destination as much as a set of songs. "Through the swaying coral
groves/Brushing past the stones/And drifting 'neath the greenest shade of
canopies/Casting shadows as we roam."
*
MusΘe MΘcanique's dual songwriters, Micah Rabwin and Sean Ogilvie, met in
their ninth grade English class twenty years ago, and they have been making
music together ever since. The band's 2009 debut, Hold this Ghost, featured
immediate melodies and lush orchestration that garnered significant press and
a devoted listenership worldwide (as well as a glowing review from
Pitchfork). MusΘe MΘcanique's ambitious follow-up, From Shores of Sleep, is a
rich and dense musical voyage that findsits lineage as much in the
song-cycles of Robert Schumann as in its Portland, Oregon, folk-rock
contemporaries. Over the course of two years, Rabwin and Ogilvie labored over
lyrics both together and separately, referencing Homer's Odyssey, Dante's
Inferno, Jacques Cousteau, old sailors legends, as well as their own
interactions with the ocean and the rivers near Portland.
Using water as the album's central image, MusΘe MΘcanique has crafted a story
both surreal and insightful, meticulous and moving. It's a record about
travels and transitions. And MusΘe MΘcanique knows a thing or two about
transition: To perform the new arrangements live is a daunting task requiring
the once-minimal group to utilize more than a dozen keyboards and an array of
acoustic instruments, from flugelhorn to lap-steel to musical saw.
Nevertheless, having swelled from a duo into a solid five-piece, the band now
pulls it off with impressive passion and precision.
* -DE- *
Scheint wohl Konstantin Gropper Woche bei Platten vor Gericht zu sein! Erst
werden die drei neuen EPs von Get Well Soon vorgestellt und nun folgt mit
MuseΘ MΘcanique noch eine seiner Lieblingsbands. Und die Band aus Portland
hat Gropper mit ihrem neuen Album "From Shores Of Sleep" erneut begeistert,
denn er sieht in diesem "das fantasievollste, opulenteste, ambitionierteste
und schlichtweg sch÷nste H÷rerlebnis seit langem".
MuseΘ MΘcanique, die aktuell aus Micah Rabwin, Sean Ogilvie, Matthew Berger,
Brian Perez und John Whaley bestehen, lie▀en sich ein wenig Zeit fⁿr den
Nachfolger von "Hold This Ghost", der 2010 den 27. Platz bei Platten vor
Gericht (7,5 Punkte im Durchschnitt) erreichte. Zwischen orchestralem Folk-
und vertrΣumtem Kammerpop bewegen sich die 10 Songs auf "From Shores Of
Sleep", die sich thematisch mit der Seefahrt und "dem ganzen, gro▀en Drama
des offenen Meeres" auseinandersetzen. Wellenrauschen, anschwillende
Streicher, singende SΣge, Akkordeon, BlΣser und Chorgesang sorgen fⁿr einen
H÷rgenuss, der vermutlich diesmal die 7,5-Punkte-Marke durchbrechen wird.
Ganz bestimmt, wenn Konstantin Gropper eine Bewertung abgibt.
Wie sanfte Wellen str÷men diese Lieder heran, funkeln sachte, erheben sich
mit leicht schwingenden Flⁿgeln. Andere ruhen f÷rmlich in sich, nehmen dich
sanft an die Hand, um dir eine verwunschene, jedoch sch÷ne Welt vorzufⁿhren.
Einsam plinkernde Pianot÷ne treffen auf warm sprⁿhende Akkordeont÷ne, BlΣser
zaubern pastorale Ornamente, Streicher wiegen sich im Klang der
Akustikgitarren, ein Windhauch touchiert das Glockenspiel und die Stimmen
schweben zart und leicht wie Federn durch die Lⁿfte.
"From Shores Of Sleep" spⁿlt uns an jene Ufer des Schlafs, die uns auf die
poetische Art trΣumen lassen. Flⁿchtige Songs, die sich weich an und um die
Seele schmiegen, dir sagen, dass alles gut wird. Eine Flⁿchtigkeit, die
jedoch in die Tiefe geht, zwar sachte, aber mit einer Nachhaltigkeit, die uns
ein stilles SchwΣrmen beschert. Ist das Folk-Pop? Oder Chamber-Pop? Als
Krⁿcke dⁿrfen MusΘe MΘcanique so eingeordnet werden, ihren feinsinnigen und
feinfⁿhligen Songs werden derartige Stilzuweisungen nicht gerecht. Der
Songreigen hat etwas Beruhigendes, Zufriedenstellendes und Wahrhaftiges. Es
ist ein auf seltsame Weise sch÷nes Album! Lasset die Worte nun ruhen und
lauschet mit Andacht!
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Dream Pop
is a subgenre of
alternative rock and neo-psychedelia
that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop
melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions,
and effects such as reverb, echo, tremolo, and chorus. It often
overlaps with the related genre of shoegaze, and the
two genre terms have at times been
used interchangeably.
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