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d i s s i d e n t
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a r t i s t : Cul De Sac
t i t l e : Death of the Sun
d a t e : 2003
l a b e l : Strange Attractors Audio House
g e n r e : Indie
r l s. d a t e : Apr-2003
t r a c k s : 06
b i t r a t e : 192kbps
s i z e : 58,3 MB
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Cul de Sac
Death of the Sun
SAAH011 CD Only
Release Date: February 18, 2003
Personnel - Robin Amos: Sampler, Sequencer, Synthesizer - Glenn
Jones: Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Electric Sitar, Electric
Bass, Field Recordings - Jonathan LaMaster: Violin, Bowed Bass,
Hunting Horn - Jon Proudman: Drums - Jake Trussell: Sampler,
Sequencer, Melodica, Toy Piano, Hisses
Nearly four years has elapsed since instrumental avant rock
innovators Cul de Sac released a studio album. Last year's
sublime live radio performance Immortality Lessons (SAAH007)
notwithstanding, just what has the band been up to? Cul de Sac
went through a personnel shift, resulting in the arrival of
both bassist/violinist Jonathan LaMaster and
electronics/turntabilist Jake Trussell - a significant makeover
signaling a change in sound was immanent. The band was
commissioned to compose the original score to the Roger Corman
produced film The Strangler's Wife (coming in 2003 on Strange
Attractors). More recently, legendary ex-Can vocalist Damo
Suzuki invited Cul de Sac to tour the US and Canada- as his
band! All the while, Cul de Sac's fifth studio album (seventh
overall) was gestating in the laboratory, meticulously taking
shape. With the influx of new membership came a dramatic shift
in creative direction, and soon the project began spiraling
dramatically out of control, to the point that the album was
almost aborted. Thankfully the seams held together and the band
hurdled their many obstacles. Death of the Sun is the result,
by far the most elaborate, difficult, melancholic àand
heart-wrenchingly beautiful album of their career.
Death of the Sun is as much a musical and compositional
departure in every way for Cul de Sac as their otherworldly The
Epiphany of Glenn Jones, the infamous psychodrama in
collaboration with the late John Fahey. Taking a cue from two
tape-based pieces from that album, the band set out on a new
path informed by their experience. By virtue of Trussell's
modern electronics, augmenting analog wizard Robin Amos' role,
a new approach to creating the music unfolded. Samples form the
backbone of the album, the blueprint of the tunes. As the
foundation became increasingly electronic-oriented, Cul de Sac
responded with acoustic textures, and the juxtaposition works
magically, a seamless integration. A heady, introspective mood
is established immediately with the opening "Dust of
Butterflies", as swaying vocal samples whisper through static
electronics, sorrowful violin, and acoustic guitar yearnings.
And onward: electric sitar meanders through folding rainforest
samples and the mallet-massaged drums of "Bamboo Rockets";
incessant percussive mantras exhume mystical vocal spirits in
the trance-inducing "Tarok, Son of Stone"; Field recordings
weave through Glenn Jones' signature crystalline electric
guitar, as "Bellevue Bridge" comes the closest to that familiar
Cul de Sac sound, while the title track "Death of the Sun"
makes the most jarring departure, melding tripped-out beats,
dirge guitar, unsettling samples and acoustic textures into one
wildly hallucinogenic ride. The haunting closer, "I Remember
Nothing More", saunters morosely with acoustic guitar, sparse
drums, and a ghostly vocal sample flowing over and under the
song's moody current. Astonishingly, no two songs were created
in the same way.
Death of the Sun is a challenging listen, pushing the Cul de
Sac sound forward into entirely new realms. Folk, avant rock,
electronica, turntablism, field recordings, percussive trance,
ambient, Middle Easternàthe points along the musical plane are
vast, but in the hands of Cul de Sac, the integration is
spellbinding and atmospheric. With Death of the Sun, Cul de Sac
have quite simply created their masterpiece.
(http://www.strange-attractors.com/catalog/saah011.html)
". . . one of their richest and loveliest records yet . . . a
set of gorgeous textural compositions that cultivate a
romantic, twilight sensibility in which fingerpicked guitars,
crackling 78 rpm crooners and skittery analogue synthesizers
pay homage to disparate musical elements of the departed 20th
century . . . ['Dust of Butterflies'] discloses a region of
time and memory in which childhood and old age, radiance and
darkness are summoned in equal part . . . impeccably made music
where nothing is overdone. Its keen sonic sensitivity achieves
a rare grandeur." --Christoph Cox, The Wire
". . . a work of genius, innovation, vision and intelligence."
--Keith Bennett, The Weekly Dig
"This uncategorizable and hallucinogenic sonic stew blends
radiant feasts of samples and electronics with meandering
guitar, sitar, violin, field recordings, melodica and sparse
drums into one hell of a mesmerizing whole. Putting a genre tag
on this is just plain stupid. . . ." Mats Gustafsson, Broken
Face
". . . this long awaited . . . record from one of our favorite
groups is a stylistic breakthru. . . . It's really no surprise
that if any band could do this well, it would be the
always-amazing Cul de Sac. This record is the hands-down best
lull-you-to-sleep record of the year so far -- reminiscent of
lots of AQ faves (Phillip Jeck, No Neck Blues Band, Bohren,
Jackie O Motherfucker, Birchville Cat Motel Band, Third Ear
Band) but totally amazing and original as always!" --Aquarius
Records
". . . once Cul de Sac has worked out an idea, it rarely looks
back. . . . It's refreshing to hear a band move from idea to
idea so completely instead of merely looking in different
directions while holding rigidly to a known foundation. The
pieces all seem composed from scratch, as if each one is an
entirely separate project . . . Cul de Sac has made an art of
attention to detail." --Martin Pavlinic, Junkmedia
". . . Trussell's work with sampling and sequencing is his
particular addition to the mix, and it can be heard in such
winners as the title track, a mix of everything from heavily
distorted guitar abuse to samples of sound sculptures and a
throbbing core drum part. 'Dust of Butterflies' . . .
demonstrates the mix and match potentials beautifully . . . the
whole song has a strange, entrancing atmosphere . . . how the
muffled flow of the backing textures sounds like both a loop
and a looming summer shower, and how Jones' guitar provides
gentle, crisp contrast even as the elegant, mournful
arrangement blossoms into that of a full band. Jones himself
gets a fine moment of source material glory with 'Bellevue
Bridge,' drawing on field recordings done in the town where he
grew up, his own shimmering electric guitar part making
everything sound all the richer and more beautiful, with Jon
Proudman's shift to sparkling cymbals and Trussell's toy piano
the icing on the cake. Proudman gets a chance for a great
drumming showcase with 'Turok, Sun of Stone' . . . a storming
but never overwhelming roll of percussion propulsion, his
bandmates adding low drones and restrained touches while guest
singer Juliet Nelson adds wordless, echoed calls." --Ned
Raggett, All Music Guide
". . . an amazing, if tranquil, record that is the result of
three years of sophisticated experimentation with sampling held
to a high aesthetic standard." --Outsight
"As the band's beautiful acoustic drums, bass, and acoustic
guitar accompany the scratchy old piece ['I Remember Nothing
More'] the listener's world just melts away into a puddle of
archaic bliss. . . . Death of the Sun doesn't just see Cul De
Sac at its best, it sees music at its most powerful and
rewarding. Hunt this one down, you won't regret it." --Matt
Shimmer, Indieville
". . . though I might question whether or not the context of
Cul de Sac's music can be definitively called rock, Death of
the Sun meets the band's aims with favorable results. . . .
'Dust of Butterflies' samples a 1933 78-rpm record . . . to
create a dreamy, tropical undulation, nicked by electronic
glitches and set afloat on LaMaster's sonorous violin. 'Bamboo
Rockets' samples Peruvian field recordings, but more
prominently features Jones on electric sitar, which eerily
dances over the deep, dark sounds of the sampled rain forest
audio and Proudman's drums. 'Turok, Son of Stone' samples and
loops tribal-inspired drumming from Proudman, upon which
unearthly moans and hisses flitter and decompose. 'Bellevue
Bridge,' featuring recordings made on the aforementioned
structure in Jones' childhood hometown in Nebraska, is Death of
the Sun's only real plunge into Americana, with Jones' guitar
echoing John Fahey and bluegrass fingerpicking while cars pass
in the distance and the rest of the group create an expansive
and dramatic backing score. . . . The main strength of the
album is Amos and Trussell's ability to integrate the samples
in a way that makes them sound organic and integral to the song
. . . a success, and though a few tracks may linger too long,
or the normally well-crafted manipulation of the samples loses
its flair from time to time, Cul De Sac have managed to do
better at using these samples and integrating them into their
work than many, many musicians who have tried before them."
--Adam Strohm, Fakejazz.com
(collection from: http://www.culdesac.org)
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01-Dust of Butterflies [09:55]
02-Bamboo Rockets, Half Lost in Nothingness, Searching [04:30]
for an Inch of Sky
03-Turok, Son of Stone [07:26]
04-Bellevue Bridge [06:13]
05-Death of the Sun [08:47]
06-I Remember Nothing More [05:35]
-------
42:26 min
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e m a i l: diss@subdimension.com
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