When I first started the Release of the Month column way back in September of 2005, I knew there would be a day when I would have to select two choices for a single month. The destruction of the column's name was inevitable, as "release of the month" implies a single, unified entity. Indeed, there were many months in that span of time that I seriously contemplated the inclusion of a second deserving disc in the article, but time and again I was able to exclude its presence. But now, in the dawn of a new year, I find myself with quite a dilemma -- two cds which I believe are equally deserving to carry the torch: Six Parts Seven and Beware of Safety.
The bands couldn't be more different. Six Parts Seven has over a 10 year history, being one of the most influential instrumental bands in the US of the late 90s/early 2000s, but has fallen off the radar of late in the post-Explosions in the Sky craze that swept the country in 2003/2004. Beware of Safety is a blossoming band with a relatively small history, and it is one of those bands attempting to carve out its own identity after the aforementioned "post-rock" boom. In fact, Six Parts Seven is so old, when they formed people were actually playing post-rock, not this instrumental indie-rock that is nowadays passed along as such. It is quite an odd combination to place them side by side here, but we shall take them each in turn.
The amazing thing about Six Parts Seven is that it only takes one minute and seventeen seconds to make the listener feel right at home. This is the length of the album opener, "Conversation Heart," and it is the sound of a banjo stealing your heart. Feels good, doesn't it?
I can't really say much about the band that either hasn't been said already or that one can readily put intelligibly into words. Casually Smashed into Pieces isn't a genre-defying or career-breaking release from the band, but that does not mean it is not enjoyable. Truthfully, it is enjoyable on a level that few other instrumental acts are capable of achieving, that of satisfaction. Plain and simple: satisfaction -- and it does not really look like much -- satisfaction, that is, but it is an underappreciated quality in the musical world. Why settle for "satisfaction" when you could be "epic" or "cathartic." I'll give you a moment to contemplate.
How often can we describe a band as providing satisfaction? How often do we? I don't think in all my years of writing critiques I've once described a band as such, but it's really not something to be glazed over. Six Parts Seven makes music that is pleasing. It's not quite warm nor moving, nor overwhelmingly engaging, but there is a quality to it that is just so...charming. This is music that brings out a genuine feeling of contentment, one from deep down inside, from a place you didn't know existed. Personally, I know there are very few musicians (be it instrumental or otherwise) that I could tolerate listening to for hours on end and not pull my hair out, but I can confidently say that Six Parts Seven easily accomplish this task. Of course, this could relegate the music to the position of "background music," but a quick listen to"Stolen Moments" will clear this up: boring Six Parts Seven is not.
The marked change in Casually Smashed to Pieces is the newfound strength involved with the trumpet and clarinet on tracks such as "Stolen Moments," "Falling over Everything," and "Confusing Possibilities," which display a unbreakable confidence in the band's sound. Although this is by and large new for the band, it's not really a modification of the Six Parts Seven dogma, which has always focused on the arrangements of instruments. The core of the band is always guitars and drums, with the auxiliary providing support in a variety of ways. On one track it might be an organ or piano, the next a lap steel, and the next a trumpet. The mind doesn't necessarily pay so close a detail as to pick up on the differences, but the band doesn't want it to -- the mind should be in a serene state during the course of the album. We'd only notice if it were missing, and thankfully, there's always something to hold our attention.
The half hour of music looks short on paper, but I've never had thirty minutes progress so slowly, and that's a compliment. This might be due to the cd player being on repeat, as we are working with addicting material, and if this was released in the summer I'd go sit out on the back porch, watch the sun go down, and pour myself a tall glass of lemonade. I grew up in the Midwest, so this is all natural; I wouldn't see that in the busy streets of New York City, but while listening to Casually Smashed to Pieces I'm reminded of the life that exists outside the confines of the twenty-first century lifestyle. As is, I'm happy to put the cd on and take a moment to watch the snow fall outside my window. For a moment of all life's problems disappear, and the cd's closing track is particularly appropriate: "Everything Wrong is Right Again."
If you're a newcomer to instrumental music, you might have seen Six Parts Seven's name around before but not really paid much attention to them, or if you have, perhaps they appeared a bit dull, especially when compared to a apocalypse-slinging band. I do hope that this album allows you in on the secret of the band's magic. It's a subtle record, and not in the sense that "it's really quiet for several minutes before getting loud." It's subtle in the sense that its outwardly simple presentation is so powerful at stirring a sense of satisfaction in the listener. Return once again to "Conversation Heart," that's been ten years in the making right there -- that short segment that just catches the attention is exactly the right way. And when it gets you, suddenly it begins to make sense why this band has been such an influential band for so many years, even to bands who have nothing to do with the instrumental world. An instrumental band influencing non-instrumental bands? That's crazy, I know. At the very least, bands like Foxhole and Theta Naught have done well to follow in this band's footsteps.
Casually Smashed to Pieces is another wonderful accomplishment to an already exemplary career. Comfort is found in things familiar, and we are satisfied.
After the success of second-generation "post-rock" bands in the United States in 2005, there was a noticeable increase of new bands forming and putting out debut CDs in 2006. While some of these bands were undoubtedly successful, many of them would have benefited from taking a little bit of time to rework the newly birthed material and iron out the weak spots. Beware of Safety could have easily been one of these bands who were quick out of the gates and made an impressive start, only to run out of steam on the very lengthy course.
However, Beware of Safety is not one of those bands. It is important to note that three of the members are in their late twenties, with the forth member member sliding in at 23. This is not the (what is now becoming classic) example of college kids coming together in a session of pedal worship. A few years of experience can make all the difference, and in Beware of Safety's case, the decision to not join the bandwagon in 2006 has caught them in the limelight as the rest of the scene takes a breather after an exhaustive year.
Many will be quick to write off Beware of Safety as yet another Explosions in the Sky and/or Mogwai clone. But, let's try to get past that for once in our lives. Let's, for the sake of argument, pretend that these effects existed long before those bands were ever created and that other individuals are capable of using these effects without being so easily written off. Let us also actually delve deeply into It is Curtains and not just browse the tracks, commenting on how they're probably quiet/loud songs with reverb effects, and this equates to the band being unoriginal. With all of this in mind, we push forward.
Now let me be completely contradictory and draw two comparisons to this band, those being of Caspian and This Will Destroy You. The first is not difficult to believe; Beware of Safety is a band that has played with Caspian several times, and will accompany them on the West Coast leg of its April/May tour. The latter is a bit more mysterious. While I don't doubt that the act is aware of the Texan quartet's presence, it would strike me as odd that they would consciously draw upon them as a source of influence; believing otherwise, in my humble opinion, would be wishful thinking. Instead, the comparison is drawn from the band's desire to still maintain somewhat planted in the traditional post-rock sound of "brooding compositions with epic, crushing finales," even if it is by just the skin of a pinky toe. It is Curtains pays homage to those who came before, while still exploring some new worlds, which is really the ideal goal of any debut release.
In my eyes, the validity of the newer generation of bands rest largely in the shift of focus on emotional content to that of physical substance. Let's be honest, Explosions of the Sky is basically the fluffy emo band of "post-rock," and the sea of wannabes follow directly in those footsteps in the art of, primarily, creating emotions. Although there were certainly instrumental acts who had always strayed from this categorization, it wasn't until The Fall of Math that a large amount of listeners were drawn to something that so blatantly disregarded emotion (and, somewhat ironically, the band begins to fuse it back in with One Time for All Time, albeit in a highly artificial manner). Enter 2005. Caspian's accomplishment was to bring this movement stateside, drawing largely from oceanic resources, and bringing the essence of New England life to the world at large. "Quovis - Futher In - Further Up" does well to mimic the subtle power of the ocean -- from its surging waves to the forceful undercurrent, and future compositions further this ideology. Beware of Safety displays the western side of life, that of living in the infinitely frustrating and increasingly artificial City of Angels. And thus the stage is set for the narrative.
With the motivation of the EP properly contextualized, It is Curtains unfolds with a mechanical like precision, carving a deep path which is then later revisited and filled in with emotional content. The band follows the thinking that if you can play a six-song set in half an hour, people might not consider you to be a pretentious post-rock band. Maybe. The six tracks on the EP follow a consistent narrative while still showing the quartet's diversity. "Kaura" begins the disc with twinkling guitars and hollowed distortions, barely increasing intensity as the track progresses, and just when it begins to gather momentum it fades out (cue the frustration). "Weak Wrists" is where the band begins to distance itself from the pack. The track breaks itself into two, presenting broad swipes of guitar and pummeling drums. The first climax is led into as we'd expect, and the second is thrown at us rather quickly, though not awkwardly. The surprise comes with the third explosion, which appears out of thin air (literally, silence) and blindsides the listener. At this point in time we're beginning to understand why exactly it is we should beware of "safety." The third track returns again to twinkling guitars and simple melodies, a welcome respite after "Weak Wrists."
If the cd continued on like this we'd pat Beware of Safety on the back and tell them they had done a good job, but this is just the appetizer to the main course. "Veneklasen" is a short interlude that resets the palette for the real show. "O'Canada," in its own right, is the standout track of the cd. I've got a strange curiosity for start/stop tracks, those which continually abort and regain momentum, and this is the best I've heard in years. I'm not quite sure what the Canadian reference is to, as no Canadian band that I know has the guts to pull this off, but maybe they've sneaked a peak at the new destroyalldreamers cd. This leads us straight to the behemoth, "To the roof! Let's Jump and Fall..." For the most part, this is a typical 10+ minute quiet/loud post-rock song. It's probably essential that every band have one in its resume, and Beware of Safety has done its homework on this one. Had this come out five years ago we'd be heralding them as the champions of post-rock, the titans who created the infamous wall of sound, but today we'll settle for it just being a bloody good track. The highlight of the track for me is the denouement. Right after the climax the songs begins to unwind and fade out with the guitar outro, ever...so...slowly. Then at the 8:05 mark the momentum begins to rebuild. Typically, we'd expect some distortion effects to sweep us home, ala Mogwai, but this is different. The last two minutes are very focused and controlled, exhibiting a deliberate restraint -- one which suggests that this is just the beginning. Because, yes, if we return to our narrative, life in LA never stops.
Our hats go off to Beware of Safety. In a year that will inevitably be marked with so many fine instrumental releases, they have managed to make their mark on 2007 by placing an early bid. Time shall tell what the future holds for them. This fine release hits the market just a week before the Colts will defeat the Bears in Super Bowl XLI. As the band members are huge Patriot fans, they are in mourning over the AFC loss to the Colts, and you should do all you can to cheer them up. Why not buy a copy of It Is Curtains?
~Jordan Volz