Singer - Unhistories
ARTIST.....: Singer
TITLE......: Unhistories
LABEL......: Drag City
URL........: http://www.myspace.com/singertheband
RIP DATE...: Apr-24-2008
STORE DATE.: Mar-25-2008
GENRE......: Indie
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 53,7 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Slow Ghost 05:23
02 - Divining 03:31
03 - Please, Tell The Justices We're Fine 06:27
04 - Oh Dusty 04:14
05 - Dumb Smoke 05:31
06 - Party Lessons 06:41
07 - Mauvais Sang 08:57
─────
40:44 min
Release Notes:
http://www.dragcity.com
Four vets of the Chicago outsider-rock scene do not quite a
supergroup make, but when the band includes two guys from U.S.
Maple, whose output features some of the most deeply alien takes
on punk ever, you pay attention. Like Maple, Singer tie minimalist
songs into Gordian knots: Clean guitars stab and moan, while drums
skate around the rhythm, rather than hammer it home. Unlike Maple,
all four dudes harmonize like drunken karaoke addicts. It's got a
good beat now and then, but dancing to it would require existing
in several extra dimensions. (www.spin.com)
It's almost impossible to enjoy Chicago post-rock supergroup
Singer's music without knowledge of the band's collective
pedigree. Guitarist Todd Rittman and drummer Adam Vida were
members of U.S. Maple, rock's most divisive Beefheart acolytes.
Adam's guitar-playing brother Ben plays with drone merchants Town
and Country. Bassist Robert Lowe used to be in the No Wave-
influenced quartet 90 Day Men. As if that weren't enough, both
Ben and Robert have ambient solo projects (Bird Show and Lichens,
respectively). Pedigree aside, Singer's main gimmick is that - as
befits its name - all four members sing. Each song on its debut
album Unhistories boasts multi-part vocal harmonies that
frequently sound at odds with the fitful, atonal music behind it.
Since even the best supergroups tend to be little more than the
sum of their parts, it should shock no one that Unhistories sounds
like U.S. Maple fronted by a barbershop quartet, with occasional
dollops of electronic processing thrown in. Opening track "Slow
Ghost" sets the template. One guitarist plays a long-lined chord
progression, while the other plays solos that veer wildly in and
out of the pentatonic scale. The drummer embellishes his boxy
stop/start rhythms with long, fluid rolls. Lowe's voice shifts
from a slurred drawl to a raspy falsetto with equal aplomb, while
the rest of the band harmonizes behind him. Lowe takes the lead
on most songs, which is a good thing: if his comrades' work with
their previous bands is any indication, he's clearly the best
singer of the bunch.
Unfortunately, there are many moments on Unhistories when the
music is so dissonant and disjointed that it almost forbids Lowe
from eking a strong vocal melody out of it. Singer frequently
puts its instruments in simultaneous yet independent motion. On
"Please, Tell the Justices We're Fine", the guitarists sound like
they're playing an entirely different song than the one that
Adam's metronomic Krautrock pulse is meant to support. Singer
also grafts unrelated intros and codas onto songs that would've
been stronger without them. They spend the first six minutes of
"Mauvais Sang" building up a propulsive calypso groove, only to
abruptly derail it with the album's most blatant U.S. Maple
impersonation, right down to the detuned guitars and asthmatic
wheezing.
Paradoxically, Unhistories's biggest weakness is its sameness.
Despite the band's insatiable appetite for deconstruction, the
songs - all but one of which are in the exact same key - blur
together very quickly. Although Singer certainly lives up to its
name, the band's refusal to draw a straight line and follow it may
be more of a vice than a virtue. Even fans of its members'
previous bands may end up scratching their heads upon first
listen. (www.popmatters.com)