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M. Gira/D. Matz | What We Did | Review
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Stomp and Stammer | Molly Livingstongreat art is sometimes the most resourcefulRember the sub-food chain dregs of your high school years? Maybe you recall the ugly ones, those poor unfortunates not up to the jockocracy and fabuloso babe standards? Yeah, well some of those outcasts merely “reinvented†themselves, learning the cruel tricks and methods upon post-graduation and became a new elite. You might recognize some of them as smug scenesters in the coolest bands, the turds who book a club, edit a zine, or who managed to show at the Whitney. The oppressed don’t merely become the oppressor. They just become fast learners in a perpetual cruel game. I’d like to think that the music of D. Matz (Windsor for the Derby) and M. Gira (Swans, Angels, of Light, and sundry) is the music for the rest of us, the quiet thoughtful pluggers who hated the mean spiritedness of both classes of imposter. This isn’t bicoastal hipper-than-thou tastemaking, or Windy Shitty gamesmanship; but it has plenty that would satisfy acolytes of either persuasion. Slooooow arrangements drive songs filled with painfully majestic acoustic, peculiar electronic accents, and vocals that caress, annoy, and cajole in the most astounding ways. Gira and Matz......
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M. Gira/D. Matz | What We Did | Review
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Stomp and Stammer | Molly Livingstongreat art is sometimes the most resourcefulRember the sub-food chain dregs of your high school years? Maybe you recall the ugly ones, those poor unfortunates not up to the jockocracy and fabuloso babe standards? Yeah, well some of those outcasts merely “reinvented†themselves, learning the cruel tricks and methods upon post-graduation and became a new elite. You might recognize some of them as smug scenesters in the coolest bands, the turds who book a club, edit a zine, or who managed to show at the Whitney. The oppressed don’t merely become the oppressor. They just become fast learners in a perpetual cruel game. I’d like to think that the music of D. Matz (Windsor for the Derby) and M. Gira (Swans, Angels, of Light, and sundry) is the music for the rest of us, the quiet thoughtful pluggers who hated the mean spiritedness of both classes of imposter. This isn’t bicoastal hipper-than-thou tastemaking, or Windy Shitty gamesmanship; but it has plenty that would satisfy acolytes of either persuasion. Slooooow arrangements drive songs filled with painfully majestic acoustic, peculiar electronic accents, and vocals that caress, annoy, and cajole in the most astounding ways. Gira and Matz......
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M. Gira/D. Matz | What We Did | Review
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Stomp and Stammer | Molly Livingstongreat art is sometimes the most resourcefulRember the sub-food chain dregs of your high school years? Maybe you recall the ugly ones, those poor unfortunates not up to the jockocracy and fabuloso babe standards? Yeah, well some of those outcasts merely “reinvented†themselves, learning the cruel tricks and methods upon post-graduation and became a new elite. You might recognize some of them as smug scenesters in the coolest bands, the turds who book a club, edit a zine, or who managed to show at the Whitney. The oppressed don’t merely become the oppressor. They just become fast learners in a perpetual cruel game. I’d like to think that the music of D. Matz (Windsor for the Derby) and M. Gira (Swans, Angels, of Light, and sundry) is the music for the rest of us, the quiet thoughtful pluggers who hated the mean spiritedness of both classes of imposter. This isn’t bicoastal hipper-than-thou tastemaking, or Windy Shitty gamesmanship; but it has plenty that would satisfy acolytes of either persuasion. Slooooow arrangements drive songs filled with painfully majestic acoustic, peculiar electronic accents, and vocals that caress, annoy, and cajole in the most astounding ways. Gira and Matz......
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ANGELS OF LIGHT/CALLA | Live | Review
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WIRE MAGAZINE | DAN JONESBOWERY BALLROOM, NYCFor Brooklyn group Calla, who have been taken under the wing of Michael Gira’s Young God label. Minimalism is the watchword. Not a note is wasted during their end-of-year support slot at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Every simple melody or chain rattle sample goes toward creating the melancholy mood that engulfs the group’s songs. The three piece develop atmosphere with just a few ingredients, and echoey guitar, clangy metal on metal samples and circling bass and drums. Sometimes, Aurelio Valle’s whispered vocals, Ennio Morricone-style guitar twangs, and drummer Wayne B. Magruder’s nerve jangling samples bring to mind Portishead working their way through Neil Young’s Dead Man soundtrack. Live, a track like “Fear of Firefliesâ€. From the recent Scavengers album, could pass for a pop song, albeit one heard down a dark alley, propelled by a cyclical bass line, simple guitar strums and slinky percussion. However Calla also deal in stratospheric dynamics. The set opener, “The Swarmâ€, builds from simple strumming into a chalkboard-scrape crescendo, leavened with layers of reverberating feedback. Frontman Valle is the quiet eye in the center of the storm. His resolutely low-key delivery gives the impression that you are eavesdropping on......
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ANGELS OF LIGHT/CALLA | Live | Review
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WIRE MAGAZINE | DAN JONESBOWERY BALLROOM, NYCFor Brooklyn group Calla, who have been taken under the wing of Michael Gira’s Young God label. Minimalism is the watchword. Not a note is wasted during their end-of-year support slot at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Every simple melody or chain rattle sample goes toward creating the melancholy mood that engulfs the group’s songs. The three piece develop atmosphere with just a few ingredients, and echoey guitar, clangy metal on metal samples and circling bass and drums. Sometimes, Aurelio Valle’s whispered vocals, Ennio Morricone-style guitar twangs, and drummer Wayne B. Magruder’s nerve jangling samples bring to mind Portishead working their way through Neil Young’s Dead Man soundtrack. Live, a track like “Fear of Firefliesâ€. From the recent Scavengers album, could pass for a pop song, albeit one heard down a dark alley, propelled by a cyclical bass line, simple guitar strums and slinky percussion. However Calla also deal in stratospheric dynamics. The set opener, “The Swarmâ€, builds from simple strumming into a chalkboard-scrape crescendo, leavened with layers of reverberating feedback. Frontman Valle is the quiet eye in the center of the storm. His resolutely low-key delivery gives the impression that you are eavesdropping on......