In music, there is a point where a compositional technique that used to be effective suddenly becomes ineffective because of how often a composer uses it, almost like a breaking point.  Every genre of music has their own techniques associated with it – the double bass drum assault in metal is no longer a sign of intensity, guitar feedback has become much less grating, and as one reviewer of a My Bloody Valentine live show noted, ending something with a tidal wave of noise is no longer rebellious or cathartic, it's just annoying.  Of course, the effectiveness of these techniques will vary from listener to listener based on their familiarity with the genre, but it is safe to say that post-rock has its fair share of trite techniques.  And Penelope Sulla Luna knows all of them.

The tremolo picking at climaxes, the constant ascent upwards in pitch, the subtle use of electronic drums – it's all here.  If it wasn't for a few huge missteps in sound and composition, it might work, too.  Unfortunately, it seems that the band uses these compositional techniques because they were told it would work, yet they hardly perform the music with any attempt to create those effects.  The ends of certain harmonic cadences only feel like points of release because of the natural emphasis created by the chords, not because of any emphasis that the performance itself creates (for example, just after the 3:30 minute mark in closer “Fortunadrago”).  In fact, any dynamic contrast in the music is caused by layering or a change in guitar effects.  The band relies on those to create all the dynamic effect they need.  Penelope Sulla Luna does indeed use those effects well – both “Butterfly Drama” songs use spacey effects and reach a level of excellence through subtlety not seen in the more dynamic songs.  Still, the dynamics need much more attention in terms of both performance and production.

The actual sound of the album certainly does not help.  When a climax is reached, almost always through distortion, all sense of tone and clarity is lost because of the chunky distortion sound used.  With both guitars and bass distorted, nothing remains to give any sense of tone or color.  The only time this works is in opener “Back to the Teenage,” which takes inspiration from grunge, and the dirty sound fits the mood.  At other times, however, the band is trying to be beautiful with ugly sounds.  In all of these climaxes, the lead guitar tremolo picks along with the chord progression.  “Space Donut” is nearly eight minutes of tremolo picking, which, by its end, simply loses any effect it once had. 

It truly is unfortunate that the band composes such generic music.  For anything better, look no further than their influences – Mogwai, Mono, Explosions in the Sky.  Still, if they do move on to create something noteworthy, their peculiarity as a band will carry them to new heights.  From Italy?!  TWO women in the band?!  The press will go nuts.  Their steps to improvement are not unattainable – get better guitar sounds, perhaps work with a professional audio engineer instead of self producing, and use a little more variance in terms of composition, and suddenly everything will sound clearer and more effective.  For now, however, My Little Empire is a lackluster debut.

-Tyler Fisher