Search - Art in Manila :: Set the Woods on Fire

AIM to please

Frank Gualtier | Colorado, USA | 08/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Art in Manila fronts Orenda Fink's always comforting voice and sometimes unsettling pros before a band of explicatively positive artists yielding an emotive and decisively human amalgam. The album ranges from the acoustic Les Savy Fav cover of 'The Sweat Descends' (all other songs written by Art in Manila) to the psychedelic 'Spirit, Run' and walks the room between (lots of good rock - no heavy metal) with a very progressive sound that ties it all together. I can't stress enough the impact of the creative infusion the other members (Adrianne Verhoeven, Dan McCarthy, Steve Bartolomei, Ryan Fox and Corey Broman -- not a single greenback on the roster) who compliment Fink in arrangement and performance. It's the projection of Orenda Fink at her finest as sounded forth through volley's of this band's powerful invention and skill. The entire album is tight and every song hooks you. Brilliant and well made from start to finish. It's the best album I've heard yet for 2007 and it already has me jones'ing for their next LP. -f-"

Anything you love

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 01/31/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Honestly, no one groaned louder than I when Azure Ray broke up -- somehow their solo work didn't seem to have the same flavour.



But the formation of Orenda Fink's Art in Manila was something of a comfort. As in her previous band, Fink spins layered, graceful indiepop -- but "Set The Woods on Fire" (as you'd expect from that title) is a darker, more elusive work with a distinctly mournful edge.



"Oh time, time... gets us all," Fink sings sadly over a mellow piano melody. "There was a day/when our love was all we had/One kiss and the ocean swallowed us in the abyss..." The song slowly climaxes in a haze of guitars and organ, as Fink describes the frustrations of how "I found another love/And you say it was a mistake..."



Cue the funky, fuzzy "Our Addictions," a catchy little pop-rocker thatserves as something of a counterpoint. Most of the remaining songs linger somewhere in the middle -- there are gentle folky ballads, folky pop songs, and some mellow, haunting melodies in the vein of the first song, right up to the delicate, heartbreaking finale "The Game" ("I just don't want to play the game/And to hurt the one I love/Fly away crimson dove...")



The ballads are solid enough to keep the album running. But Art in Manila also experiments with some truly brilliant rockers -- "Spirit Run" is an ominous tower of fuzz, cycling guitars, and soaring vocals. And the title song is an absolute gem: it's a powerful, layered pop tune laced with ripply synth, and cries of "set the world on fiiiireeee.... we make things better/we make things whole!"



Art in Manila is a sad band -- just look at the first four song titles (some cheerful examples: "Time Gets Us All," "Our Addictions," "Abomination" and "I Thought I Was Free"), even before you hear Orenda Fink's voice. Even more than Azure Ray, this band is infused with a sense of melancholy and loss, despite the prettiness of the music it's wrapped in.



Most of the songs rely on acoustic guitar, sometimes plucked as a ballad, and sometimes strummed into a mellow pop tune. But Fink wraps the acoustic melodies in smooth layers of wavering keyboard, tambourine, drums, stately mellotron, and piano. The rock-ier songs tend to pile on the smashing drums and electric fuzz riffs -- in face, the whole song becomes denser. Good stuff.



Fink's voice hasn't lost any of its beauty -- it's still pretty, clear and powerful. And as she sings songs of resentment, regret, and love ennui, she tends to keep hr voice in a powerful murmur ("See, old man, you done us wrong/You ain't no saint/And I'm not your son"), but occasionally raises it to an echoing, vibrant cry ("Oh, how long must the soul endure/Divine silence is all you get for yours/Set the woods on fiiiiiiiire....").



Art in Manila is a solid follow-up band for Fink, with its emotional folk-ballads and powerful rock songs. And "Set the Woods on Fire" is a dark, mournful debut that sparkles with talent."