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Moshe · 07.15.2009, 02:47 PM

Angels In America "Cunt Tree Grammar"

Ecstatic Peace

8/10

A Black Sabbath intro with droning three-bar repetition, a slowed-down and drugged-out Nancy Sinatra, a raspy minimalist Björk, with little twisting and stabbing interludes of distortion. Night music, for that long stretch of time between three and four a.m., for those places affixed between abandoned and demolished. The gritty sort of photographs you find in serial killer biographies.

Really excellent transportive guitar that alternates between grunge metal riffs and tuneless plucking, and for a second, it almost even sounds like church bells. The vocals have that raw smokiness and unassuming lucidity that set Angels In America apart from the grating nasal whines of current pop punk bands.

Side B isn't as good, I'm sad to say, but it is interesting. Spoken word over doom acoustics, which seems to speed up and intensity imperceptibly. It's nothing you wanna be left alone with, that's for sure. There is Zeppelin, simplified but still gauzy and alchemistic, gentle accusations, broken vans left on roadsides, and a bit of Peter Murphy without the Gothic narcissism. An experimental moment with that sounds like an alien carnival barker over rising and falling wahs. Their music could carry for miles if they wanted it to.

This all sounds like something I've heard before but cannot place, and there remains the constant underlying itch to identify it in my incapacitated memory, a void surrounded by etched words like Sonic Youth and Bethany Curve. It is, certainly, more memorable and articulate than Nelly's album of not-quite-the-same name. 8/10 -- April Larson (14 July, 2009)

07.15.2009, 02:47 PM	#191
Moshe Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,862	Angels In America "Cunt Tree Grammar" Ecstatic Peace 8/10 A Black Sabbath intro with droning three-bar repetition, a slowed-down and drugged-out Nancy Sinatra, a raspy minimalist Björk, with little twisting and stabbing interludes of distortion. Night music, for that long stretch of time between three and four a.m., for those places affixed between abandoned and demolished. The gritty sort of photographs you find in serial killer biographies. Really excellent transportive guitar that alternates between grunge metal riffs and tuneless plucking, and for a second, it almost even sounds like church bells. The vocals have that raw smokiness and unassuming lucidity that set Angels In America apart from the grating nasal whines of current pop punk bands. Side B isn't as good, I'm sad to say, but it is interesting. Spoken word over doom acoustics, which seems to speed up and intensity imperceptibly. It's nothing you wanna be left alone with, that's for sure. There is Zeppelin, simplified but still gauzy and alchemistic, gentle accusations, broken vans left on roadsides, and a bit of Peter Murphy without the Gothic narcissism. An experimental moment with that sounds like an alien carnival barker over rising and falling wahs. Their music could carry for miles if they wanted it to. This all sounds like something I've heard before but cannot place, and there remains the constant underlying itch to identify it in my incapacitated memory, a void surrounded by etched words like Sonic Youth and Bethany Curve. It is, certainly, more memorable and articulate than Nelly's album of not-quite-the-same name. 8/10 -- April Larson (14 July, 2009)
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