the milieu

Album Review – The Synchronicity Suite

I have to say, by way of preface, that “Synchronicity” really FEELS like a compilation. When I make mixes, one of my goals is always to make the transitions between songs (even of different styles) feel effortless. That’s certainly not the case here. The first three songs are as disparate in style as any could be. That’s not to say they’re bad, though.

There seem to be two “sides” to this album, more or less. The first (and more interesting) is the “sliding” style of half the songs:

(2) “10″ by Mux Mool is the first standout track. It’s a fusion of electronic and instrumental soul which is mixed so as to make you feel like you’re sliding through the first and last third of the song with a good reprieve in style in the middle.

(4) “Angel Dust” goes somewhere else entirely. It’s definitely in the vein of house electronic. But it does employ a lot of sounds similar to the other tracks in this list.

(5) Scott Brandon’s “Voyage in the Dark” makes the best use of sliding down a scale I’ve heard in a long, long time. Other than that, the song’s pretty repetitive. Good for a dance or driving mix.

(6) Not that I do, but if I were to drop a tab of acid, I’d do it to “Cavedweller.” It’s a little heavier, but it feels similar in style to works by The Appleseed Cast or M83.

(8) “Death AsA Man,” a joint project of Praveen and Benoit, takes the listener from melody to discord and back. It ends with just the right amount of distortion, and perfectly sets up the opening of the next track.

(11) “Slip Slop” needs to be bought. Get it now. It’s one of those songs that’s certainly a standout in its genre. “Slip Slop” alone does more to bring this album together than any one track, pulling the acoustic/piano sounds from Small Sails into an effective relationship with the sliding style of “10″ and the heavy beat of “Cavedweller.”

(12) “Memorial” by Matters & Dunnaway slows down this side of the album, but not in a bad way. It’s a good relief to the other, faster tracks in the mix.

(14) “Across the Pale Sea” has (a) an incredible title and (b) a unique Asiatic feel that makes it the next standout track. The two notes on the piano at 1.48 are a wonderful counter-action to the rest of the track, which seems to build inexorably faster.

(16) “Motive Utilitarian” is the next song to build on the “sliding style,” While not life-changing, it’s a solid track that provides an incredible foil to “Gloveblocks.”

(17) “Gloveblocks” is another must-hear track. It’s style is so clever and original that I wish more of Touch Base’s work was on iTunes, and it rounds out the “slide” side of this compilation.

As I wrote this review, I split the album up into two playlists: one using the previously mentioned ten tracks (the “sliding” ones) and another which used the other ten, most of which are to some degree vocally driven. Both, when separated, feel a lot more cohesive. I almost wonder if this were meant to be a two-cd set.

I’d highly recommend purchasing the first playlist. It will keep your interest for a long while. Then again, since the “buy album” button gives you the whole collection for the same price, I’d say go ahead and click it. For ten bucks, you get a hell of a lot of music—most of which is without doubt worth the price of admission.

-For what it’s worth,
Brian

“If you could rename yourself, what would your name be?” There are quite a few ways to take this question because of the ambiguous phrasing.

1. In contemporary American English, the question implies that one can change one’s name.  In this interpretation, the operative clause is “what would your name be?” – which is another way of asking what nomenclature you would like to respond to and/or with which you identify. Thus an appropriate response would be a name you choose because you like it or find some meaning in it. That’s pretty boring but also pretty common.

2. One subtext of the question emphasizes an association between “name” and “self.” “Rename yourself” is the operative clause in this subtext, and (both in proximity and conceptual content) it weds name and selfhood. The questioner is not asking what name you LIKE, but rather what name best indicates who “you” are. Further, if the questioner means this, she is probably also the kind of person who believes in magic and/or the supernatural. In her understanding, language possesses true power, either to describe or affect the material, which indicates an IMMATERIAL reality superseding the physical.

3. However, the question starts with “If.” “If” is a word which should always slow the reader down. There is the possibility that the questioner insinuates that a name CANNOT be changed and is asking either (a) a hypothetical question to analyze the answerer, or (b) asking a question about what a name would become if it could be changed. Rephrased in light of possibility (b), the question becomes: “If ANY name could be changed, what would ANY name be?” As a side note, this is the kind of person whom you might find tiresome or annoying at first. But chances are, if she thinks that much, she’s a pretty careful person whom herself chooses friends based upon deeper convictions. Therefore she is probably loyal and trustworthy.

[just some food for thought]
-brian.b

I came to this album with mixed feelings. The words “I Will Possess Your Heart” emerging from my radio left me nonplussed, but I couldn’t get them out of my head. From the first high note Ben Gibbard hits in “Bixby Canyon Ridge,” however, it is clear that Death Cab has spent the last two years working hard. In many ways, Narrow Stairs feels like a return to pre-Transcendentalism Death Cab, albeit cleaned up, polished, and better for the journey. With its fast tempo, dizzying lyrics, and nose-dive refrains, “Cath…” resurrects a Photo Album sound that many had thought lost for good. “Your New Twin Sized Bed” showcases Gibbard’s ability to take a common item and – as if by incantation – extract a moving tale from the molecules. “Pity and Fear” pulls the album’s tempo up for one last peak before subdued melody and evocative lyrics of “The Ice is Getting Thinner,” which may be one of Gibbard’s best songs ever.

One thing that may help a listener understand the album is to put it on repeat and listen to it two or three times straight through. I think that the album employs a cyclical season similar to the Julian calendar. There are twelve songs and twelve months, and the album begins with the same image with which it closes – death and ghosts in a riverbed. “Cath…” is a disillusioned wedding song in the month of April, and “Grapevine FIres” employs the heat of August to discuss a turn towards winter.

All in all, new fans will find something to like, if not love, in Narrow Stairs. Long-time fans may feel like Death Cab has become too mainstream, and this album could entrench that opinion. This reviewer, however, thinks that the album deserves the purchase.

[4.5/5]
-brian.b

Apologies to the three of you who still check this website. I’ve been back in California and fairly preoccupied with family and friends. I will be posting to this website more regularly starting now.

Keep your eyes open for the following:
- some comments on The Darjheeling Limited
- commentary on remarkable passages from Proust’s Swann’s Way
- a review of Death Cab for Cutie’s newest album

For those of you on the east coast, I’ll be back in Florida next Monday. Which is very weird.

[----]
-brian.b

Mountain Man
For my Father

At the base of my mountain
you call – “Brian, come down.
It’s time to go home.”
In response I declare
“I – AM – A – MAN!”
But with each word,
I move my chubby feet
one more step towards you.

You repeat your command.
I repeat my song and dance,
drawing nearer to you
with each step
through space and time.
You laugh and gather me up
effortlessly as though I am air.

Safely in your arms I look back
to the mountain I transcended -
now a hill, now only a mound
of drying grass receding from sight
behind the curve of your shoulder.
I will dream tonight of being like you,
strong enough to carry myself,
powerful enough to turn
mountains into mounds.

In the French Countryside, 1946

Wind asks a bomb-wrecked barn
to find meaning through its damage.
“Be well, be well,” Wind whispers
into the barn’s wooden frame.
I know this because I’ve waited,
I’ve sat in the hayloft and listened
for Wind and the barn to speak.

They speak as one to speak at all.
Like a gunman in an abandoned cathedral
venerating a forgotten crucifix,
the two enemies only make sense as one.
Wind and the barn sing together,
homologous and content.

-brian.b

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[see? grad school's easy.]
-brian.b

Simone VI

The sunlight climbs in uneven slivers out
from under the Venetian blinds. I awake
to the end of a half-remembered song
rolling over the drifts of dream, a receding
snow in the springtime. I can’t recall
the song’s words – only the melody bars
my way back to the flatlands I could bend
with a word or wish, the place where you
and I resided together happy, alone.

I reach into myself, clutch the fragments,
but already you are once again you,
no longer me. And (once more) before
rising, I whisper your name into my sheets
where I keep it safe from the tyrant History.

“There was this girl.  Her name was Simone.”

-brian