New Music: Colleen, Softwar

Colleen - Sun Against My Eyes (Leaf 2007)

Colleen - Les Ondes Silencieuses / Leaf

Ahhhh, Colleen, always coming round when I need her most. Everyone Alive Wants Answers came along on one of those starving post-graduation days where Taco Bell was a luxury; I was browsing Boomkat and applying online for a job at Mellow Mushroom (or something equally as dubious). The Golden Morning Breaks created a surreal French country village in my mind that was turning over space and time with too much ease. Les Ondes Silencieuses rides in quietly on spring winds carrying unseen misfortune. Colleen somehow always imposes her music at memorable times. Call it a mystery of the universe or simply coincidence but Les Ondes Silencieuses is here and I couldn't be more involved.

Why so interested? Yeah, I do hear alot of music on a daily basis, but what makes a particular record stick? In this case, Les Ondes Silencieuses is a distinct shift in sound from the previous two full-lengths; Colleen is all grown up, eschewing with the music boxes for serious instrumental archaeology. This album features only five promiment instruments, all decidedly retro: viola da gamba, spinet, guitar, clarinet, crystal glasses. A stripped down approach for an artist already dedicated to minimalism and space inbetween sounds. The result is a rich pallette of old-world sounds, the viola da gamba, the seven-string ancestor of the cello, deserving particular praise. It particularly works with Colleen's new affinity for chiarroscurro as opposed to Impressionism, less looping and now more akin to chamber music echoing out of a magical bottle, sound perfectly preserved from some medieval hillside convent also inhabited by the likes of Fursaxa, Kuupuu, and Josephine Foster.

"This Place In Times" sets the table with gentle, punctuated swells introducing the lush, regal sounds of the viola da gamba. "Le Labrinthe" is a chiming, meditative duet mostly between guitar and the spinet, a kind of small harpischord, which combine to paint the warm glow of a chalette on a cold, rainy evening. "Sun Against My Eyes" would fit right in on one of my very favorite records, Do Make Say Think's Winter Hymn, Country Hymn, Secret Hymn. Its all snowflake delicacy, soothing sounds like a homecooked meal setting your tastebuds alight, unlocking so many good memories. Also, there's a definite nautical point to be made, songs like "Echoes & Coral" and "Sea Of Tranquillity" unfurl rickety old maritime culture, cured meats and sleeping in the hull and Captain's Logs. "Le Bateau", which means small ship in French, closes out the album viola da gamba proving itself as one of the most incredible instruments I've ever heard, like if the cello always gave soggy eyed monologues.

So have I mentioned the viola da gamba? If it were a person I'd pledge myself forever. Les Ondes Silencieuses is the most mature effort yet from Colleen. Not that the tiny orchestras of the previous two records weren't fully cooked, but this long gaze towards chamber music is certainly growth, Colleen stepping out fearlessly onto previously untouched lands, wielding the power to shape a world in her image.



Softwar - The Softwar (Digitalis 2007)

Softwar - S/T / Digitalis

I've gotta admit, I really like the new Kings Of Leon. Its spacious and clean and at times like what New Weird America would sound like gone arena-sized. Because Of The Times is just that, a product of its time, at a point where everything is so referential and only one degree apart. Thank you, Google. Thank you, Myspace. We are seriously getting too good at information grabbing and the ability to create instant culture just a blog site away. This Kings Of Leon could be Comets On Fire playing it straight or Wooden Wand if only knew his capability to take over the world. Just accept it, this is the world we live in, so lets all give thanks to the psych folk deities from the Jewelled Antler Collective for one of the records of the year.

Thats right. Softwar comes bearing the emblazoned mark of Jewelled Antler, the same folks associated with Skygreen Leopards, Thuja, Blithe Sons, etc.; in this particular case the line-up consists of major guru, Loren Chasse (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Kyrgyz), Christine Boeppel (Whysp, Skygreen Leopards), with Kerry McLaughlin and Geoff Koops of Franciscan Hobbies. Lots of star qualities here, and its ridiculous I even know who these people are but never underestimate the power of a good search. So travelling a billion miles an hour, this transcontinental root has burrowed miles and miles below the surface just to come tap my soul. Softwar's debut record is the brightest flower in a full-bloomed psych folk field already populated with copious beauty.

The album splits its ten tracks between coronating corporeal folliage and floating soft prayers into the night sky. "Psychic Shake" and "Hagoo (The Victory Over Moods)" are dense pieces with all the clangor and crash you'd expect from Thuja but this time with a more discernable form. Both of these tracks, as does most of the album, features the spellbinding vocal talents of Kerry McLaughlin. Its really amazing how the mood is so similiar to Finnish stuff like Islaja or Kuupuu, despite time and place somehow these artists connect to these California forest-dwellers. "The Softwar" is a faerie dance spell, McLaughlin's vocals hovering overhead, asking you the tough questions about life and then giving you the answers! There's healing power in this music, a waffing haze of mana leading you down the most golden of all roads. "Earthen Volley" and "Soft Love" show a dedication to tiny, delicate melody perfectly exemplified by artists on Japan's Noble label. "Immul: The Children's Crusade" and "Prui" are the longest tracks here with the latter clocking in at a modest nine minutes. As a result of the length these songs are given proper room to breathe, stretching out in a million directions like the thickest of canopies.

Its this seemless combination of all the good in the world that makes Softwar's debut such a fascinating album, stitching together so many things that make sense into an always rewarding listen. There's so much good sub-underground tape stuff out there right now and I'm barely keeping up. This Softwar record is a great example of the wealth of musical greatness being churned out on a daily basis. Thats right. I'm a critic and I've got a smile on my face, but that makes me more of a fan doesn't it? Its 2007, y'all, we've only got five years left until Quetzecoatl's return so lets get past the headnod and fully appreciate God-sent genius when it confronts us.