a r t i s t : Antique Brothers
t i t l e : Emerge Murky Sunlight Vol.5
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Phantom Limb
c a t : ARM003
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Psychedelic/Experimental/Folk
r l s. d a t e : Apr/2007
t r a c k s : 06
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 37,8 MB
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Volume five of this duo's phenomenal acoustic guitar
manipulations, this is actually only their second release.
Following the critically acclaimed debut release on the House
of Alchemy, this album finds the brothers in a much more
communicative and realized state. For fans of Six Organs of
Admittance and Clipse alike.
- Foxy Digitalis -
The latest release in the series titled "Vol. 5: Emerge, Murky
Sunlight" comes out of Grant Capes burgeoning
hand-made-and-sprayed label, Phantom Limb Recordings,
beautifully packaged and full of incredibly realized home folk
concoctions.
Most tracks are centered on acoustic guitars played in
repetitious loops or across long improvised passages. "Linear
Wolf" sets the bar high from the start with some intense
guitar interplay between the brothers that's positively
symbiotic at points when the notes stay in sync even when the
rhythm suddenly fractures or mutates. Guitar figures on this
album always squirm into wilder deviations but never become
overtly ostentatious, leaving room for a slew of other sound
devices. There is some very pleasant and unaccredited flute
playing, best experienced during "Black Bart's Cave" where the
sonorous duet with guitar in the songs final moments tips
toward the mystic. Effects are used subtly throughout most
every song, more for manipulating odd, short sounds into
semi-decayed images projected across the track rather than a
forced psychedelic blur. Tape loops and synthesizers figure in
heavily at various points, especially the Ogee mix of "Clipped
Wrists and Slit Signals," an unwound stagger through
psychedelic misdirection that, like most every track on the
short album, consolidates logic down the path in fleeting,
beautiful moments. For the most part, their approach to
recording exhibits enough skill to be accessible and enough
ingenuity to keep their esoteric approach to psych fresh.
At its most layered, this album never sounds bloated. Not
really spacious, but their songs always sounds shaken loose.
Percussion clatters and rolls across several tracks, creating
transient rhythms that seem to lose steam before getting on
track. With so many layers pulled back, so much space left
open, such an approach would fall flat if the recording was
too rigid or contrived. But the Brothers pull it off with
laid-back charisma and the ability to create endless variation
through a keen improvisational wit. When faux-ironic chants of
"It's A Small World" pop up at the end of "A Marked
Discoloration," we can laugh it off knowing the moment came as
truly as could be expected. But don't be mistaken. The
improvisation has a relaxed feel throughout, but when
everything breaks down on the album closer "Where Are the
Bongos?" and they explode into an ecstatic chant, ending with
a piercing electronic shriek, you know this isn't any
slack-jaw daydream. More like morning disorder as, piece by
piece, the day takes shape: momentary confusion cleared, ideas
become fixated upon however vague or pointless, stresses
slowly accumulated, the unknown confronted with ease.
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01-Linear Wolf [05:42]
02-Clipped Wrists And Slit Signals (Ogee Mix) [04:44]
03-Civic Orientation [06:15]
04-Black Bart's cave [04:51]
05-A Marked Discoloration [05:22]
06-Where Are The Bongos? [06:41]
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33:35 min