SARGENT HOUSE

Have you heard what a Japanese fox sounds like?

Neither have I, but this new EP from prog trip outfit Marriages might just possess as many magical qualities as our eastern brethren associate with this fantastic little animal.

Kitsune is the debut record from Emma Ruth Rundle, Greg Burns and David Clifford; three fifths of pioneering noisesmiths Red Sparowes and all of their new side project Marriages.

As is oft the way for truly creative types, one outlet for all their ideas and energy doesn’t seem to have been enough for threesome of musicians, and their new band was born from their collective excess mojo.

And lucky for us that it was.

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Listening to Marriages debut album Kitsune is an almost spiritual experience. I don’t mean that listening to the album is going to cause you to find God or anything like that but it will take you to another place with its ghostly musings. The songs here are beautifully epic and will haunt your soul. The credit there goes to singer/guitarist Emma Ruth Rundle whose voice and guitar textures are the soul of Marriages.

The songs released up until  now don’t do Kitsune justice. It’s not that the songs aren’t good, because they’re beyond that, but within the realm of Kitsune and the flow they create with the rest of the album they’re perfection. “Ten Tiny Fingers” was incredible on its own but hearing the synth intro at the end of “Body of Shade” which goes directly into “Ten…” will give you goosebumps.

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One cursory glance at the cover of the latest album, Getting Paid by El Paso based Zechs Marquise would lead the listener to believe they were about to listen to an album of intense bass laden funk or an album of children’s songs by the Animal Kwackers. Three of the band members are brothers Marcel, Marfred and Rikardo Rodriguez-Lopez, who are brothers of The Mars Volta’s Omar, so a certain rich family heritage in progressive music may be apparent from the offset. The production is razor sharp as is befitting an album that is both technically proficient and intricate, as it is soulful and, yes, funky as hell.

The title track, and opening piece ‘Getting Paid’ starts with an echo which is reminiscent of any number of electronic synthesiser tunes, before the funk encumbered bass pushes any belief of that aside to make way for a mathematically complex series of riffs and phrases which mark out the characteristics of this album early on. ‘Lock Jaw Night Vision’ retains the qualities of the previous track, but is somehow also infused with further levels of energy, exhilaration and haste which give it a need to sweep the funk to one side. There are any number of tempo and mood changes within its’ 5 short minutes to bewilder the first time listener.

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Marriages / Kitsune
Sargent House
In addition to more than a handful of other bands, all three members of Los Angeles heavy psych rockers Marriages have been involved in the instrumental post-metal outfit Red Sparowes at one point or another. For anyone who heard either of the first two albums that Isis-derived side-project-plus put out on Neurosis’ Neurot Recordings, that should give some reasonable estimation of what Marriages uses as their creative base for their Sargent House debut, Kitsune.

By comparison, however, Kitsune is shorter, less self-indulgent, and more song-based than most of Red Sparowes’ echoing explorations—though some of that infinite range of distortion remains. The major change on these six tracks is that guitarist/pianist/flutist Emma Ruth Rundle also contributes vocals and helps give a song like opener “Ride In My Place” its shape, which is still well within the realm of psychedelic post-rock, but not quite as willing to let go of structure. Ultimately, the album’s adherence to such familiarities as verses and choruses pulls it back from an edge of would-be progressivism (and into, I’d argue, actual progressivism) and makes even an ultra-ambient piece like “Body Of Shade” something listeners can grasp onto.

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Released in 2011, “Gangs” caused quite a stir. It’s one of those records that got played a lot by people who don’t normally listen to instrumental music as well as those who live off the stuff. The verdict was overwhelmingly one of being knocked down by the explosion of sound – mainly the distorted, metallic, atonal riff-fest found on a few tracks. While the word “eponymous” is generally used to mean “self-titled” in describing records, it the case of their 2009 debut it also took the meaning of the band giving their name to a sound. The consensus in 2011 was that these guys remain innovators rather than followers.

Looking back on it I understand the excitement but on listening again some months on and alongside other great releases of 2011-12, some of the cracks are a little wider. For example, I find some of the repetition of the squealing riffs continues too long in parts. It’s a great sound but a little annoying in the end. Regardless, the niggles simply see me rating this an eight and a half when it would probably have scored a nine or more the first times I heard it.

One of the most noticeable aspects of “Gangs” is how tightly And So I Watch You From Afar (ASIWYFA) play, with an instinct that only comes from putting in the hard work. All reports I’ve had tell me this is a quartet that knows how to play live and it’s evident in their recorded work.

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Good Old War / Come Back As Rain
(Sargent House) out on March 6, 2012

There’s a pure simplicity to Good Old War’s music that’s hard to resist. The band builds its lovely acoustic-based music out of gorgeous harmonies, gently-played guitars and light percussion.

The opening track offers a perfect example of what Good Old War does so well. “Over and Over” serves up airy vocals, strummy acoustic guitars and the pattering of percussions. Even though the song is about a failing relationship, there is such a vitality to the performances that the tune seems like an upbeat number. The trio of Keith Goodwin, Tim Arnold and Daniel Schwartz (who use parts of their surnames to form the band’s name) achieves this winning blend of catchy, harmony-rich acoustic music numerous times throughout this disc. “Calling Me Names,” for instance, is a hooky slice of folk pop, while the twangy “It Hurts Every Time” rates as another stand out.

The group has drawn some comparisons to Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Still, Nash and Young and traces of the former can be heard in “Can’t Go Home” and the latter in “Better Weather.” Good Old War’s music also holds elements of English folk-rock (“It Hurts Every Times” recalls Del Amitri) and Australian/New Zealand bands like Paul Kelly and Crowded House (“Loud Love”). Their sound occasionally does get a bit too soft. “Amazing Eyes” conjures up memories of the overly laidback ’70 country-pop band Firefall and the tune also reveals the trio’s tendency to sometimes repeat lyrics. The album’s closer “Present At The End Of The World,” on the other hand, wraps up the album on a high note, ranking as the most exuberant vision of the apocalypse since R.E.M.’s “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”

With this impressive album of wonderfully melodic music, the band joins the growing ranks of harmony-based folk-rock outfits like the Fleet Foxes and The Civil Wars. - by Mike Berick for American Songwriter

Chicago trio Russian Circles continue their steady ascent with their fourth album “Empros”. The follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Geneva” doesn’t stray far from their blueprint with opener “309″ barking into life revealing familiar refrains and stark, ominous echoes. With so many bands today overproducing the life out of every single note, this resonates with a rich tone that is occasionally mournful but always powerful. It is as refreshing as it is punishing to hear this kind of vitality in a band that trades in lengthy and often bleak (in the very best way) instrumentals.

The only real evolution in style since their last opus seems to be an added thrust of metallic glee in the heavier sections combined with a more streamlined approach to the songwriting. Although the individual tracks still build progressively with ambient intros and creeping basslines, they certainly do manage to get to the point a little quicker than in previous outings. As always they bely their three-piece make up by consistently achieving the kind of room-filling cacophony that many larger bands never even come close to.

The rhythmic drive of this album is nigh on perfect too. Dave Turncrantz’s drumming is way more intricate and busy than many so called ‘post-rock’ bands tend to opt for, but it never crowds the music or seems overly fussy in the context of such sprawling tunes. He throws in jazz-tinged flashes and fills that complement rather than clutter the expansive sound and really make this album something special.

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You ever heard what a bass sounds like when it’s trying to gnaw at your fucking ears?

You ever heard a guitar and keys riff on the same riff at the same fucking time and have the riff turn into this head nodding, neck yanking riff that ends up combining the entire band together on one riff so that when the guitar that was once riffing turns around and just fucking murders a riffy guitar solo that sounds like a cobra raping a Weber grill?

I’M ONLY TALKING ABOUT THE FIRST SONG DOOT. DOOT. Seriously. Doot.

Zechs Marquise have completely dominated my instrumental music cravings with an ethereal desert traipse through the semen soaked sands of my subconscious, and I’m fucking loving it. As progressive and dynamic as an Omar Rodriguez-Lopez album, but with a focused band direction that allows the air drummer in all of us the chance to sit in the pocket and fucking groove.

Every direction you turn with this as the soundtrack turns into a Spaghetti Western where the protagonist is running at something rather than fleeing like a fucking bitch. Getting Paid feels like you’re the one doing the chasing, with intricate but accessible guitar mastery as your snakeskin boots, an insane attack of the synth variety as your custom stitched finger gun holsters, a bass guitar representing the palpitations of your enemy’s heart, and a drum led groove so fucking thick I’d both fear and envy it if I had to shower next to it.

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Big Sir is a collaboration between kindred spirits – two people who’s interests, skill, and acumen converge in an incredible melding of aesthetics.  They include trip hop & down tempo with rhythms that sometimes break out, bass lines that bring you with them, and dust it all with some of the most heart-tingling vocals you’ll ever hear.  Big Sir is of course Juan Alderete (Racer X, The Mars Volta) & Lisa Papineau (ME&LP), and for those of us who consider their previous full length “Und Die Schiebe Andert Sich Immer” a favorite, news of this record was anticipated highly. We at IPMM have been blown away by “Before Gardens After Gardens.”

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Big Sir isn’t as big as Big Sur…but they could be. This dynamic duo made up of Lisa Papineau and Juan Alderete (of The Mars Volta) has explored a stunning amount of sounds and textures using both electronic and analog beats over their three album career. Their latest album, Before Gardens After Gardens is no different and continues this tradition of audio exploration.

Sounding a bit like Sarah McLachlan if she went totally electronic, Big Sir creates songs that while danceable are undoubtedly haunting and intimate. Taking electro into nearly ethereal directions Before Gardens After Gardens is a chilled out, beautiful record that soars on the voice of Papineau and floats along on the beats created by Alderete. For a band that creates songs via laptops and the internet, Big Sir have created an album that sounds so rich, so produced, and so texturally intense that it sounds like a million dollars. Chalk it up to technology or their songwriting ability it doesn’t matter, Before Gardens After Gardens remains a brilliant record.

After twelve years of working together and two previous albums Big Sir have so completely jelled as a band that their ability to write songs as good as they are is like second nature to them. Before Gardens After Gardens is a strong effort that’s as radiant and ravishing as it is memorable and unearthly. Filled with chilled out grooves and heavenly vocals this is the soundtrack to the afterlife on a rainy day and it’s awesome. 

Originally released in Ireland and Europe earlier this year, Gangs, the second release from the honest, hard working Northern Irish post rock band And So I Watch You From Afar recently received a much deserved North American gong through Sargent House taking the then quartet’s music to a much wider audience. Following up their heavy sounding self titled debut with an equally muscular album, albeit with more melodic sensibility, the individual virtuosity from the band is well and truly on display here as Roy Friers and the now departed Tony Wright throw out inventive twin guitar attacks ably assisted by a tight as a drum rhythm section of Johnathon Adger (bass) and Chris Wee (drums). None of the eight tracks rest on their laurels at any time as the arrangements are just as meticulous as the technical aspects of their music. Gangs marks a departure of sorts sonically and personnel wise for the band and is the last album with founding guitarist Tony Wright who recently left just before their just completed marathon tour of Europe. The fact that the band completed that tour and were as impressive as ever with touring guitarist Niall Kennedy (ex Panama Kings), if their Berlin show was any indication, not missing a beat, suggests that despite Wright’s decision And So I Watch You From Afar will continue to go from strength to strength.

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The first thing that needs to be said about Zechs Marquise is their blood relation to progressive psychedelic rock group The Mars Volta. Reading up on their history, I was obnoxiously excited to see that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has three brothers in this band. Anyone who’s anyone knows the immense trip that Volta can produce on an album or playing live. Much of this impact is due to Omar’s flawless, frantic guitar riffs that compare to no other. That being said, one can only hope that his musical brethren are equally as talented. If Getting Paid were a movie like its cinematically styled cover art implies, the parts to the whole should result in a blockbuster.

The Pros:
From the beginning drum burst of “Getting Paid,” this album gets down to business immediately. Get used to the Rage Against The Machine-esque drum-bass-guitar combination. Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez pounds the floor with his set of skins constantly; you are never left with a quiet moment. He is never unaccompanied by his brother Marfred on the bass; (Marcel apparently took Rikardo’s spot in the studio for supplying keyboards, but they still sound amazing). Their sound is pure thunder. “Mega Slap” epitomizes the band’s sound as a whole. The flow never ceases, and most simply put, Getting Paid practically oozes macho volition.

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