A humble grandeur permeates Sceneslow's October 9. Guitar atmospherics quilt me from cold silence but that electrified blanket is raised nose and ears high, allowing me to breathe and not be burned.
Less tasteful purveyors of guitar ambience may pummel me with overlong reverb drenched power chords but October 9 is an ocean not just of crashing waves but also of whales and seagulls heard from the ocean bed. You might imagine Poseidon wearing an underwater talking helmet, singing and playing guitar, electronics and piano. But then Poseidon was just a myth, Sceneslow need not be compared to something. It is its own thing.
Wave Pattern is October 9's minute long herald/intro - of dust and scratches and guitar. I've handed over my ticket to the conductor 'coz I'm ready for the trip.
What follows seamlessly is gentle singing with an accompaniment of arpeggios, hi-gain square wave guitar feedback that never deafens but propells submariner ears deeper into subaquatics. I also have to give Sceneslow my highest commendations for their recording technique, because they manage to give clarity to every track. Drums are not lost in an echoic mud. Like Steve Albini taking lessons from Rudy Van Gelder.
Endease unleashes reverse acoustic guitar fingerpicking in a way that makes me want to grab a violin bow up to the strings of a grand piano and start arcing away. Of course the composer Stephen Scott did this, but perhaps not to the evocative effect of Sceneslow.
Sea (she) closes with acoustic strumming, warm synth pads and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence like piano motifs, all coming at me orchestrally but sparsely. Never overblown, but at barely 30 minutes, a concise and restrained statement.
Max Go |
