Amazing Grace "Revival Times" CD
[Desolation House]
Sweet god in heaven (figure of speech)... this is one hell of a collaboration right here. Amazing Grace is a combined effort between David Sullivan (Magwheels) and Jason Crumer (Aluminum Noise), but having been pleased with work from both of their respective projects, I still have to confess that this is a far stronger piece of work than anything I've heard from either of them flying solo. The material was recorded between summer 2001 and spring 2003, and I imagine that span of time was a major factor in how this disc turned out - whether they worked somewhat consistently in bits and pieces, or every now and again in larger chunks. "Os, Itighaho" opens with a massive 10 minutes of gorgeous melodic drones and low-end pulses with an odd atmosphere that rests right on the line between the bleak and the beautiful. "Sunday" follows and the tones become a little louder and scarcely harsher, noticeably generated by guitars - both through playing notes and scraping strings, it seems. Samples seep into the distance amidst fits of hissy distortion and electronic textures, but nothing becomes too concrete or overbearing. I'll admit not being as much of a fan when the use of guitars becomes evident, but they still tend to come up with some powerful material surrounding those elements, which helps carry things along. "Blind Man's Ears" is another shorter and quieter piece (right around four minutes), perhaps darker than the preceding two, using minimal low-end drones and softly sustained ringing tones with more very obscured samples quietly lingering in the distance - only later starting to get a little louder and more robust. I imagine the content of the samples is applicable to the themes of the disc, but sonically they're working more as texture and intriguing devices, because you can't really make out what's being said. "Blind" is the most minimal and consistent piece, in line with the opener but even more stripped down (and the brief guitar passage at the end is by far the most powerful use of the instrument in recognizable form on this CD); and "Dreaming Doesn't Make it Go Away" slowly builds in volume before changing over to what sounds like some reversed musical notes at a slow pace over a faint rhythm. "Faith Healing (Symbols)" stands out a lot as it's built around lots of percussive sounds, nothing too rhythmic or overt, but lots of clinking and clanking with dense reverb - somehow another fairly sinister one. "---" closes with a brief two minutes of fairly distorted and choppy material, still not harsh at all, and still built around a sense of billowing movement, but certainly a little more aggressive in certain regards. The disc comes in a nice looking digipack with sepia toned photography and textures that all have sort of an oddly dirty and bleak atmosphere, at times accented by decorative patterns. Very curious. This is a great release overall. A few brief moments of guitar in "Sunday" are the only slight hitch, but that's nothing I'd hold against this work in any way. Absolutely recommended for fans of the dark ambient realm, as there's something a little different about the approach here that I can't quite pin down. I think fans of Aluminum Noise and Magwheels should be pleasantly surprised and impressed by this. Nicely done. (8/10)
Running time - 42:23, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Os, Itighaho, Blind Man's Ears, Faith Healing (Symbols)]
Desolation House - http://www.desolationhouse.com

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