Mogwai, God Speed! You Black Emperor,Spacemen 3,Sonic Boom,E.A.R.,My Bloody Valentine,New Order,Joy Division,The Jesus and Marychain,Rapoon,Zoviet France,Loop,Lush
Steve Copley of Mabou is my colleague at Stylus, which disqualifies this plug from being an objective review. However, I'm happy to share my honest opinion of Our Last Sleep Is Our Final Awakening. It's a fine shoegazer album, one that grows on me with each listen.
What appeals to me is its homegrown quality. It doesn't hit you over the head with the "We are so shoegazer, remember 1991, remember?" vibe I've heard in some retro-minded projects. I like how the production is a little rough around the edges. One guy on guitars, one guy on percussion and programming, feed through effects and sequencing, and that's it. Loveless cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to make, and it doesn't sound much better
On one hand, the album is generally pretty easygoing. The grooves are loose, the drums sound nicely natural, and the chord progressions are standard for pop music. No vocals here, except for perhaps some that have been highly processed into textures.
On the other hand, it hits some gnarly peaks, with guitar tones that rival the buzzing-est of black metal. This album's like life - it ebbs and flows, with some nasty headaches thrown in. Some of the uglier (in a good way) tones remind me of the vastly underrated Medicine.
"You're Like Lights in December" opens with a very Mancunian bass line. It goes into a I-V-IV with a nice contrast between sharped and flatted thirds; the highlight, though is a sudden patch of beautiful clean tones before distortion comes swarming back. "Your World and All That Is in It" does likewise, unexpectedly darkening in the middle with an MBV-esque bass groove. Heresy perhaps, but while I love Loveless, I've already listened to this album more.
You can find Our Last Sleep at Amazon and other online retailers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review from Chain D.L.K.
by: Marc 'the MEMORY Man' Urselli-Schaerer
Mabou's "Summer Artifacts" is a beautiful record by Cleveland based experimental musicians Stephen Copley (guitar player) and Steven K. Smith (installation artist, also with Skye of Daye and Dolmen, the latter being a duo with Baltimore based Jason Sloan, with whom he released the long distance collaboration ambient record "Ritual Awakening" in April 2002). The two engage into dense and sophisticated layering of drones, samples, percussions, guitar effects, voices by slowly adding, to build up a climax, or substracting, to reverse back to minimal sonic isolationism. The tribal percussions, coupled with the effected guitars and the bass lines, sometimes seem to be echoing Bauhaus, but there is more to this that just memories of the past... An intense spiritual approach and vision seems to underpin the record in its entirety (sound wise and graphically as well) and the feeling of naked ritualism warps and wraps your perception of time and space. Nonetheless the ritualistic dark soundscapes and the ethno-sciamanic percussive tribalism make this close to a masterpiece in ambient music that lovers of Lycia, Lopside, Rebro, Steve Roach, Vidna Ombana, Bethany Curve and similar acts will surely appreciate. Very impressive!!!!
Review from Splendid Magazine
by Christian Carey
Mabou is Steven Copley, who plays guitars and does electronic processing, and Steven K. Smith, who is responsible for keyboards, loops, percussion, voices and programming. The two create post-prog music, primarily instrumental in demeanor and heavy on textural exploration. The extended introduction on the album's first track, "The World has Changed", is a beguiling sonic landscape comprised of loops, electroacoustic drones, guitars and echoing wordless vocals. When the drums finally enter, they lay down a heavy rock beat that abets Copley's guitar work, heavy on long sustained chords. Just as quickly as it begins, this second section is cut off by pulsating synth and a quick decrescendo that brings the piece to an enigmatic close.
"Explaining Colors to the Blind" juxtaposes Copley's wild experimentation with effects pedals (he goes kind of nuts with the flange) on his electric guitar and a more subtle, and more lovely, plucked chordal background.
"Beatitudes" uses a slower progression of musical materials: drones, muted percussion, single bass notes and a slowly winding melody. "As the West Encroaches" is another example of this type of gradual development, although this time echoed vocals, which have almost a World Beat cast, play a large role. Mabou are at their best when they let the music stretch out, texturally and formally speaking, instead of showboating with the effects pedals. On several of the pieces from Summer Artifact, they approach a singular sound that's quite affecting.
On October 31, MABOU will release "Our Last Sleep is Our Final Awakening", the follow-up to 2003's critically acclaimed "Summer Artifacts." On "Our Last Sleep is Our Final Awakening," MABOU's Steven Smith and Stephen Copley deliver nine songs of coiled, muscular post-rock with nu-gaze leanings. Copley's other-worldly guitar and bass lines blend seamlessly with Smith's bold drum beats and synthesizer work. The result is masterful, blissed-out rock that washes over and through the listener in waves of shimmering distortion. The music moves effortlessly from groove-oriented dream pop to deeper, darker ambient sounds, completely submerging the listener in a new world of aural pleasure. "Our Last Sleep is Our Final Awakening" builds on the sonic explorations of "Summer Artifacts" while breaking new ground. Perfect for fans of post-rock, nu-gaze, or experimental music.
If you are looking for artistic direction, please consider working
your outfit, clothing, art piece, or performance into this chosen
theme.
Friday is the cleanup/setup/prep party starting at 7 pm, followed by
performances, DJ'ing, and an outflow of creative energy, which
continues strong until Sunday morning. Dressing up on both days is
encouraged.
If you are inviting someone along, be sure they have read it also, and
kindly direct them to sign up to this distribution list so that they
can be informed of future events.
As always, BYOB, and ideally, bring your own cooler with ice (we can't
guarantee we will have them available for you behind the bar.)
Bring a vegetarian food item to bring if you'd like to come here and
eat around 7 pm Saturday.
By now (or VERY soon) you should know:
- how you are going to contribute to the event
- costume / outfit (I know they aren't required, but the event is so
much more fun when you all have something unusual about your
appearance)
- a creative way to contribute to the theme
PM me for address/directions after you've read over the website.
I love "our last sleep" very much! Jamming this loudly over and over... reminds me of why I fell in love with music so much in the late 80's early 90's. All the beauty, all the edge.
..
