Release of the Month: March 2009
The Silent Ballet staff count down their top picks of March.
A long time may pass before we see another month like March. It was as if the floodgates had broken open; we found ourselves awash in high-profile and high-quality releases, arriving at the average rate of one per day. When all was said and done, an astonishing array of choices was laid before us. Many of these releases would certainly make our year-end charts; many would end up in our private collections; but which among them was the best?
Given this embarrassment of riches, the staff converged on a select few, with two additional picks highlighting the difference between the hemispheres. Yet perhaps the most amazing thing about March was not the quantity of releases, not the extent to which artists did live up to expectations, but the fact that we were reminded just how much we love music, and why we got into writing about it in the first place.
1) Tim Hecker ~ An Imaginary Country
Kranky
Votes: 6
Three years have passed since Tim Hecker last graced our ears with a studio album, but there is no longer any doubt: the Canadian experimental master is back. An Imaginary Country sees Hecker honing his pulse- and noise-based ambience to what may just be its highest level yet – and that alone is quite a recommendation. There’s something undeniably physical about the composition of these songs, and Hecker’s soundscapes give way quite easily to the imagined landscapes which the album title prompts us to consider. We’re only three months into 2009, but at this point, An Imaginary Country seems a lock for the year-end top of the charts. The odds of many better albums being released in the next nine months borders on the unimaginable. (Tom Butcher)
2) From Monument to Masses ~ On Little Known Frequencies
Dim Mak Records
Votes: 4
Arguably On Little Known Frequencies doesn’t rock as hard as its predecessor, The Impossible Leap…, but to deny the San Francisco trio the right to evolve is tantamount to pigeonholing them just for the sake of criticizing that precise pigeonhole. From Monument to Masses have always been a band that have lead with their hearts just as much as their brains, and OLKF is no different; the band offers up some of the catchiest, addictive post-rock in the last few years and couples it with pertinent topics of interest. The music itself is the leanest we’ve seen from the band, as they play as tightly as ever and have cut off nearly all the fat in their compositions. What unfolds for our ears is an album of near perfectly performed post-rock with a side helping of social consciousness. Love it or hate it, few do it better than FMTM. (Jordan Volz)
3) Bell Orchestre ~ As Seen Through Windows
Arts & Crafts
Votes: 3
Temporary Residence
Votes: 3
On New Year’s Day, many were surprised when Mono announced that their latest LP was soon to be released. The teaser track, “Ashes in the Snow,” promised the grandeur Mono is known for, but the rest of Hymn to the Immortal Wind defies expectations and is easily their best work since Walking Cloud, if not of their career. As on past releases, Mono subtly massages the soft/loud dynamic they have perfected, and the charms of the album will only grow on the listener. It’s true that Mono do not deviate terribly far from their past formula on Hymn, yet the record still seems to mark a clear thematic shift. This is not the first time the band has added strings to their music, but they use them more prominently here, and to a very different effect. Hymn to the Immortal Wind is majestic, orchestral, and romantic, without sounding overly sentimental or predicable. And just because the album centers around a romance doesn’t mean that the band has given up their bombastic side either. After all, love is bittersweet. (Joseph Sannicandro)
12k
Votes: 1
Lawrence English‘s latest effort resembles a spiritual quest, an attempt to color the most melancholic of seasons. Like the soundtrack to an alien invasion or music for a druid ceremony, the Australian sound artist’s dark ambient soundscapes work both as a meditative exercise and a truly original piece of work. The drones of noise alternate with more quiet pieces, immersing us into an experience both frightening and calming. An album of subtle contrasts, A Colour for Autumn reflects the season it was written for: on one hand it reminds us of the impending doom of winter, on the other it provides us with the last rays of sunshine before the cold. (John Kontos)
6) Semiosis ~ Pictural
Asiluum
Votes: 1
The divine Edgar Allen Poe once stated that when one is confronted with a vast amount of impressions screaming for our attention – like signboards with adverts – one tends to block out those that are (too) obvious. The mind sometimes works in mysterious ways, and in a month filled with great releases, mine kept wandering back to this Romanian collision of ambient post-rock and math rock. Semiosis is the combined effort of breakcore artist Candlestickmaker and Serban Ilicevici. On their maiden release, Pictural, they offer seven enjoyable tracks ranging from soothing ambient pieces to adrenaline pumping post-metal. Razor-sharp IDM and occasional bombastic drum samples lift the dreamy instrumental rock to epic sonic climaxes in this solid and sometimes surprising production. (Could the theremin be the new glockenspiel?) An ideal album to erase the memory of a gloomy winter and to make way for the uplifting melancholy of a spring dawn. (Jurgen Verhasselt)
Date Posted: 4/5/2009
Number of Views: 1123
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