I think I know what you're saying, Chris.....
mine finally arrived yesterday, and in "Church of the Open Sky", you can definitely feel more traces of the Oils in it. I played the first four tracks yesterday, realized that this wasn't going to be the case this time around, and let that sink in.
When I took the time to hear the whole thing just now, I was ready to accept that, and take it all for what it is.
and yet.....
I was afraid, at first, when I saw them in the space-suits, that they would be aping Man or Astro Man? Thankfully, that's
not the case, although there is an apparent nod to them here. The album's title track sounded a lot like Pink Floyd's "One of these Days". That had to be deliberate.
And around the time I first heard "Church of the Open Sky" I remember thinking "I hope they take it all to another level in their next one" And they did just that!
Although I felt like
the lyrics to "10 Guitars" was kinda cliched, I loved the instrumentals. But it would be a great song to dance to, live, and I wouldn't mind it in that case.
In a nutshell, adding the trumpet, and exploring different musical genres was still brilliant, nonetheless, despite that, as much as I hate to say it, in my mind at least, it lacked that basic Oils feeling I wanted to hear. But the VERSATILITY that they all have- they pulled that off pretty well, I felt. Exploring different musical avenues, evidently.
Some of it had a Tortoise-esque sound to it, as well. I loved the Buddhist chanting, but the poem didn't feel as well suited to it as I wanted it to. IT felt somewhat contrived, but I love the phrase "The moon, punctuation On a long dark question. Spoken. Forgotten. Spoken"
I hope to get more angles on all this as I listen to it more. Not to get ahead of ourselves, since this album just came out and I'm still processing it, but it's still interesting to speculate on where
they're going with all this, what kind of motif will be in their next one.
Just my 2 cents.
From: Chris <seeker42@gmail.com>
To: Powderworks <powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au>
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 12:46 AM
Subject: Re: [powderworks] the break - space farm
Hmm. I'll have to give the album a few more listens - as someone who enjoys The Break best when they're being Surf-Oils, I'm a bit disappointed that this album generally isn't that. There's no Birdman or Cylinders or Massacres here - a high-energy rock album this ain't. If you were wondering what Ten Guitars was doing on there, the answer is "setting the tone". If there's such a thing as folk-space-surf-rock than this is it.
On the upside, it's not just Church of the Open Sky Redux - it's a new album full of new stuff. Adding Jack Howard to the lineup was a kind of genius, it's certainly brought a new and engaging sound. I'm just not sure I didn't prefer the sound they produced before.
Oddly, the album is bookended by songs which are off-tone - Space Farm and Psychonauts for Freedom suggest a very different album to the one that's actually between them, one that's bigger, more dramatic, more rock. I'm not sure what to make of that.
