2007-06-19
Less improvised, less winged-out, more built and more developed – you can call it Designed – that is the nature of "Burning Off Impurities". Oldies and new electronic ambient wave combined into a deep southern yet urban parcel. As if this is the soundtrack for some place's timeline, even to history itself, starting where the old village used to be…on your right was the tavern, on the left the funds-trader and market … a leap into another scenery and now it's the saloon, the robbed bank and the general store… now there's a 7/11 here, a stripper-bar there, and a couple of ATMs by the crossroad. Only the sceneries change, it is still people doing the same old trades; Grails manage to grasp folklore by its horns and rodeo it.
Unlike their previous releases, Grails have made this one a much more glued together, coherent piece. They're still the eclectic outsides who probably read underground poetry and newsletters, write prose about alcohol and the urban life, yet also have a clear rural motif guiding them all the way to the river's delta. From the get-go Grails weren’t about your standard showgaze post-rock, so although there is some of
Godspeed You! Black Emperor here and there ("Silk RD", "Outer Banks") – it's not the deal here. Grails may create instrumental rock by definition, but as evident right from opener "Soft Temple" they lean towards more mysterious regions; picture a tired ancient army (Roman or Greek would do good), marching towards battle with adrenaline levels going higher and higher the closer it gets to the army it’s about to engage, and you'll get an idea of how the drums grow more prominent, the bass lines get wilder and the guitars strum faster and faster from this song's fourth minute on. Full-scale scenery in less than seven minutes into the album, that's their magic.
In terms of song order, or the album's 'flow', "Burning Off Impurities" is correctly built. "Soft Temple" sets the tone, letting those who know Grails' previous work and those who've just discovered them what's the trip's about be like, follower "More Extinction" serves as a sort of crispy drum&bass, electro-acoustic,
Mogwai/
Arab Strap-esque interlude – where the beats meet up with a classic cembalo and rain pours in the background – to "Silk RD", one of this album's highlights. In "Silk RD" there's a more eastern, perhaps Hindu, vibe submitted by bells and almost randomly strum guitars built into a jam session on Indian haze mushrooms; this is the closest they get to the aforementioned GSY!BE, yet still manage to avoid being a generic been-there-done-that post rock replica by infusing the elements in a way that still keeps each element's unique flavor present and pleasing to the pelt (or more likely, the ear).
Darker elements appear follower in "Drawn Curtains" – a rusty industrial beat and layers upon layers of harmonica, plucked strings, mellotron and violin all twirling and swirling like snakes on heat – thus presenting more colors from this band's spectrum. "Outer Banks" smoothly gains momentum with leading late-night jazz-session like drumwork and a background of walls of feedback noises, then halts almost completely and slowly evaporates to clear the room for another highlight – "Dead Vine Blues"; a hillbilly-band washed away in the river's rapids would be the best description for this one. Towards the finish, "Origin-ing" does a good job at sweeping the wreckage left and slowly building a recycled ensemble with whatever the surviving hillbillies found on the beach they were washed away to; somehow its 'theme' even sounds like a reprise to some melody used before. "Burning Off Impurities" ends very strong, leaving a post-war blood & dust taste with its title track, as if indeed burning off the impure bodies of fallen warriors and ultimately stacking more and more layers of past endeavors to create a completely surrounding experience.
All in all, Grails use their entire palette, combining different colors, textures and techniques of sound into a very whole piece; it can be described as a modern one, with many references of the urban life and traditional arts & crafts. This is a quilt made of patches from around the world sewn in your own mind by a group of sew-girls who were on different kinds of weed from around the world. Eclectic, well mixed, and well stitched together.
Ofer Vayner
