Timber Timbre – ‘Sincerely, Future Pollution’
Year Released: 2017
Like: Fleet Foxes, The National, Sun Kil Moon
Songs to Try: ‘Western Questions,’ ‘Skin Tone,’ ‘Moment’
Toronto-based rock group Timber Timbre doesn’t try to overwhelm you, and if they do, they’re doing it for a reason.
“Sincerely, Future Pollution,” their sixth studio album, shows the group meandering into a comfortable sound, one that rarely calls for you to turn the volume down.
The project’s main sound is one of many variations of art-rock, a genre that relies less on common listening tropes and more on creating different sounding music, while still staying within the rock spectrum.
The eponymous track has features that appear on a fair amount of the album: drum machines, distorted guitars and 80s-esque percussion fills, but these reoccurring parts don’t get tiresome or boring, they only get more “wild.”
The track flows from a simplistic nature into a cataclysm of noise, packed with glass sounding chimes and wailing organ-like synthesizers. This transition soon gives way to lead vocalist Taylor Kirk, with his introspective outward gasps above the original simplistic beat, yet it sounds almost like an entirely different song, and then it ends as nicely as it began.
Overstaying their welcome is never Timber Timbre’s goal. Songs like the shoegaze-inspired, but jazzy “Bleu Nuit” provide an interesting take on the modern indie-rock sound, yet leave the listener craving more after its eclectic four minutes have subsided.
The track “Moment” stands out to me in the listing, not just for being the longest song on the album, but because of its sonic characteristics.
Chiming synthesizers line the beat as Kirk spits his soul through his teeth, with his tough grit being highly contrasted by the dreamy, ethereal melodies that ride the rhythms. His vocals are like that of a Bob Dylan, or a Leonard Cohen, where the approach consists of a plain story, with a spoken-word vocal style being implemented, rather than being conventionally “sung.”
Not to mention that kick-ass transition on the latter half of the track, that twirls the listener into an off-the-wall guitar solo, sharpened by an entirely different tempo percussion and synthesizer pattern.
Future Pollution sees a band, long past their Sophomore slump, perfecting their sound as they grow older and wiser to the sounds their listeners want to hear. They leave very little to be desired, and very little desire to have the songs change in ways they haven’t already changed into.
Xiu Xiu – ‘The Air Force’
Year Released: 2006
Like: Stereolab, Clarence Clarity, Neutral Milk Hotel
Songs to Try: ‘Vulture Piano,’ ‘Buzz Saw,’ ‘Bishop, CA’
Welcome to shoe sho-, I mean Xiu Xiu, a band so eclectic they twist the listener into thinking they have finally started to make legitimate music, yet that’s simply not true
The group has defined themselves as art-pop, but the art styles are far more Dada than Impressionistic.
“Bishop, CA” ends with men imitating wolf calls and plastic duck squeakings.
On “Saint Pedro Glue Stick” we have an abrasive (and certainly nonsensical) piano and banjo improvisation.
One of the album’s few borderline conventional songs, “Boy Soprano,” features a mobster-like beat, accentuated by distorted accordions, bashfully loud drums and vocalist Jamie Stewart’s rambling, high-pitched, unpleasant refrains.
Needless to say, I don’t think we as listeners are even supposed to enjoy this music.
Xiu Xiu’s production team of Caralee McElroy (and on this album, Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier) hit many unpredictable strides of excellence, like the dreamy electronic beat on “Hello From Eau Claire” or the genius mimic of late-90s bands like Interpol or Built to Spill on “Save Me Save Me”. But to our dismay, packed between these invigorating experimentations are purposely dissonant, underwritten, squelching vocals, as well as discordant, tinnitus-spawning noises popping up like the remaining kernels after your microwave has beeped.
If it were instrumental and made out to not be intentionally aggravating to listen to, “The Air Force” would be possibly a five-star album. Yet Xiu Xiu is still publicly testing similar sounds, even 10 years after what they called their “most consciously pop album yet.” I, for one, welcome their avant-garde production, but could someone please get Stewart behind something other than a mic.
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