Search - Grails :: Redlight

Beautiful rustic music

Evan Williams | CA | 11/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really could have typed any random descriptive words in the title for this review (which is really what I did) seeing as how Grails manage to make something that is almost beyond what words can truely convey. The closest I ever come to fully describing what they sound like is "really really good", not awesome, or great, or stupendous, but just plain, good. That's not even a bad thing though. Listening to this album just calms the listener, with its sparse melodies and morose harmonies (along with the acompanying rim-clicks, ride taps, violin and cello strums) entering the ears and becoming a part of you. Using any word other than "good" would seem wrong because the music itself is so very simple: no over-use of effects such as delay or phasers. No found-sound, movie dialogue clips, or voices of any kind. Nothing seems to be on here that the musicians couldn't have recorded live in the studio, playing at the same time. However its lack of complexity does not at all detract from its serene, calming effect. The notes haunt you, and become a part of the world surroundng you, as if you were in a movie and this were the soundtrack. Though calm most of the time, there are flashes of intensity that bring the listener even deeper into the organic soundscapes, with distorted guitars and rumbling drums, all cascading to great crescendos that leave you again with a feeling that something just happened, becasue the music is a part of you. Truely a great album in the world of modern instrumental endeavors. For a simpler description, imagine Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but with "normal" song lengths (3-6 minutes), less instruments, and slight folk/world influences. That would be Grails."