Review from Minnesota's world famous RADIO K:
I keep reading review after review of this record, and there seems to be, at the bare minimum, a one-word consensus on the aesthetic of the newest release from Des Moines, Iowa’s The Autumn Project. Massive. From the pounding and driving drum beat which first strikes the ear at the beginning of the record, to the electronic static washouts bringing a close, this 74-minute opus plays not as a collection of songs, but as one cohesive unit. And the intensity never lets up, reaching its peak just before the 9-minute mark on “Song 4,” a 14+ minute epic which brings to mind one of The Evpatoria Report’s 15-minuters, washed out in Mono’s “Lost Snow” static. Dark, brooding, thunderous and heavy, this record does not “play nice.”
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The Autumn Project - This we take with us - REVIEW!
Score: 8.5/10
If albums could be compared to books, then most records put out these days would qualify as collections of short stories: that is, representing a series of short works, which may be interrelated, but more often are not. And don’t get me wrong: short stories are awesome. But, perhaps because of my peculiar constitution which makes me automatically value longer or larger things higher, I tend to prefer novels to short stories. And, in the world of non-classical music, novels just aren’t in great supply, if you know what I mean.
Which I why I am so happy to review This We Take with Us, the latest album from Des Moines-based post-rock outfit The Autumn Project. Beyond a doubt, these eight tracks are no short stories; rather, they are fully-fledged chapters in a larger work, which comprises the whole record. In an industry which often seems to spend so little focus on the composition of the album as a complete work, The Autumn Project blazes ahead with a shining example of what heights musical interrelation can bring to post-rock.
This interrelation can be found in the details: although some keys and slight electronic texturing can be found, mostly in the beginnings and ends to the tracks, primacy is given to one guitar, one bass, and one set of drums, which combine to form chord-driven post-rock, one far more aggressive than would perhaps usually be associated with the genre. In general, the guitar and bass maintain a consistent tone throughout This We Take with Us, which, together with segueing the songs together, helps to blend the album into a cohesive whole.
Which is not to say that the songs don’t stand on their own! This is certainly not the case; individual rhythmic patterns and musical motifs establish themselves in each track, giving each song its own personality. But like a group of eight siblings, there is a very apparent similarity (call it familial in nature) between the works, and it soon becomes obvious that a knowledge of all is required to have a knowledge of any.
This family metaphor only goes so far; it is not only the individual compositions of the songs which interrelate the pieces of this album, for the structure and order of those tracks are also of the utmost importance. From the driving solo drum beat of the first few seconds, through the stunning ambiance of “5”, to the balls-out orgastic guitar walls devolving into fields of static in the closing minutes, This We Take with Us is marked by stunning dynamism. After the first three or so tracks set things up, we are led into “4”, the longest song on the album, and also potentially the most diverse. It begins slowly, with simple arpeggios at a leisurely rate. Coming off of a lot of action in the previous tracks, this serves as a welcome respite. Yet, we also wonder how long The Autumn Project can keep this up. Through the next eight-and-a-half minutes, an incredible tension is built, as repetitions increase and the use of distortion elevates. Then, a single chord is struck, allowed to sound for eight seconds - seeming rather like thirty - and then all hell breaks loose. We are immersed a firestorm rivaling anything yet experienced on the album, which burns brightly for the next six minutes.
But all fires burn themselves out, and so does “4”, leading eventually into the ambient interlude of “5". Now, normally bands of more aggressive persuasion might use ambient music to give the listener a break after a particularly active song, and so ambiance comes as no surprise here. What is astonishing, however, is the depth to which the members of The Autumn Project devote themselves to this ambiance. “5” could perhaps be justifiably labeled as an interlude, but it is no filler track. A full-fledged song which could be listened to on its own and thought pretty damn good, it achieves levels of the fantastic in the larger context of the album. It is a rare thing indeed for such proficient post-rockers to be able to command such skill in the ambient realm; rarer still is the band which can incorporate both styles seamlessly, side-by-side on the same album, in such a manner that either would feel incomplete without its counterpart. If you want true evidence of The Autumn Project's skill in the composition of their album as a whole, I suggest you need look no farther than “5”, for it plays such a pivotal role that I would be tempted to call this ambient interlude the cornerstone of the entire album.
If post-rock in the era after The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place is often thought of primarily in terms of crescendos and decrescendos, that is, building the music up to powerful heights before unleashing a whirlwind of catharsis and the subsequent peace thereafter, then the primary strength of This We Take with Us lies in applying that crescendo-concept to the entire album. This goes far beyond having “loud songs” and “soft songs,” although such distinctions can be made in some places. Rather, extraordinary tension is built up over the course of several songs, before finally being released. Thus the third track builds on the second, which built upon the first, and all this will finally be released in the breathless conclusion to “4”. In the second half, the ashes are reassembled once more, towering even higher this time, before finally exploding in the final minutes of “8”, eventually giving way to faceless static. This We Take with Us is a truly post-rock album, as few have been before, in that the micro- and macro-organizations resemble, inform, and affect one another. To put it perhaps rather bluntly, this is that seventy-four minute cohesive post-rock song you’ve always dreamed about - or which I have, at any rate.
In any case, talk is cheap, and I’ve done quite a bit of that here. If you perhaps have been skimming over this review, hoping to find my bottom line, here it is: except perhaps, and only perhaps, for Gifts from Enola’s From Fathoms, this is the best damn post-rock I’ve heard all year. This We Take with Us is truly a novel of an album. This is extraordinary music, and I would advise you quite strongly to pay attention to it.
-Tom Butcher
www.thesilentballet.com
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"A Burning Light" - MetalReview.com - Jeremy Garner
To say that this sort of thing isn't my forte is probably the largest understatement of my career as a reviewer, so don't expect me to make all those clever analysis and witty comparisons we reviewers are so incredibly fond of; I honestly don't know enough about the style to even have a relatively informed opinion. While some of you may see this confession of ignorance to be nothing more than a half assed ploy to try to excuse my incompetence, I call it taking a chance. This time, the gamble just so happened to work out in my favor.
I've heard plenty of instrumental bands here and there, but none have been able to capture my attention. Nearly every experience I've had with instrumental music has ended in a horrifically pretentious disaster of mind numbingly boring shite. At the most I'd throw on a few songs here and there while working or reading, or maybe to go to sleep to, but I find very little worth in music that's created to be ignored and placed in the background as a form of ambient white noise to help you go to sleep. However, A Burning Light succeeds where so many like-minded artists have failed.
While normally the absence of a vocalist would bother me, what would usually be a conspicuous absence in most bands here becomes a pivotal opportunity to allow for a broader, expansionist mindset that lets the music freely roam around, considering each tonal shift with a soul heavy weight of importance. "At the Feet of Sleeping Giants" furtively swells and expands with a patience of emotional exploration, ruminating over a pivotal melodic phrase with subtle changes and variations before easing into the somber tranquility of "Across Mountain Tops to Broken Bridges". The album then takes a turn to the tension building cadences of the pensive "Between the Smoke and Mirrors", before crashing into the somber, ethereal peaks and valleys of "We Cast these Shadows", finally closing with the enchanting soul felt exploration of "A Burning Light".
The Autumn Project have delivered a staunchly impressive addition to that sort of Neurosis/Isis genre of deeply emotional expressionism that's been bustling with so much activity and talent these past few years. A Burning Light is quite literally a 'listening experience' in the best ways, taking the listener on a contemplative journey of lush musical textures and glorious soundscapes that seep into the bones, demanding the listener engage with the material both spiritually and intellectually. I'm quite glad to say this is well worth the effort.
Please check out my new song "Ginsbergs Grasp", and let me know what you think by sending me a comment about it :)! My split with E.A.R.S. is now available from Deathforce Records (Greece)!!!
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