Clann Zú "Black Coats & Bandages" CD
[G7 Welcoming Committee]
This unconventional act's members hail from Ireland and Australia, and use electric violin, piano, keyboards, violin, viola, cello, and saxophone in addition to "traditional" instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums) to create often laidback compositions that definitely convey a message. The string quartet and saxophone only make rare appearances, so much of the material is slightly more "straightforward" than the aforementioned outline might indicate, but it's still left of center. At times there are effects on the drums that make them almost sound sampled and reconstructed, the basslines tend to remain droning and persistent while lush layers of guitars and keyboards mingle together to create subtly busy or alternately minimal waves of ambience/melody, and the singing is usually quite calm and sort of soft as well. Now, when the singing gets a little more strained and the music becomes louder and more "progressive" influenced in some ways (droning passages and slightly abrasive chords/feedback) they start to lose me a little bit, as those passages are sort of irritating and disruptive compared to the generally moving and flowing tides of the base of this material, but they keep those elements pretty scattered throughout the disc. "One Bedroom Apartment" uses some excellent textured distortion amidst a memorable piano line and some staggered guitar parts that almost sound looped, and the orchestral strings should probably be used more to accentuate the mastery of this song! By contrast, "From an Unholy Height" is musically the most annoying and worthless track, using a lot of random saxophone and improvisational sounding guitar parts, held in check only by the rhythm section and sporadic vocals... very irritating compared to most everything else occurring on the CD. I'm not particularly fond of the layout, I don't know... the digipack contains all black and white artwork, which does have a strange sort of darkness to it, and it certainly does look original. But somehow, even though the tone of the visuals pretty much represents the content of the songs, it still feels like an odd fit. I do fucking love the lyrics however, as they're absolutely amazing... subtly representing political statements in a powerfully personal manner. "Each drop on the soil is the acid to wash you away. Your strength and your dictates are starting to crumble and fade as the worms of all truth feel free to eat you away. And so we piss on your grave from the greatest of unholy heights." Excellent stuff, really. I could've done with maybe one or two fewer tracks, namely "From an Unholy Height" and "You'll Have to Swim", but other than that this is a very nice record. Definitely something new, especially when looking at the message in cooperation with the music. Comparisons to Godspeed You Black Emperor and Radiohead have been drawn, which I would tend to disagree with, but elements of such are at work... so those looking for something unusual and moody might want to give this a shot. (7/10)
Running time - 46:52, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: T-éan Bán, One Bedroom Apartment, An Deirdreadh Scéal]
G7 Welcoming Committee Records - http://www.g7welcomingcommittee.com

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