SLINT

Considering the rock music landscape of 1991, Slint never should have lasted as long as they did. Grunge was being crowned king, and Nirvana was heir apparent; Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Soundgarden all released seminal albums. Slint never had a chance. The Kentucky quartet was a blip on the radar, too far removed from the angst and major-label publicity of the Seattle scene. Growing up as a teenager in southern Indiana, I know exactly what it felt like to be a Midwestern kid in the early nineties. Bands like Nirvana were like a breath of fresh air, a perfect distillation of disillusion and antiestablishmentarianism wrapped up in a convenient, portion-controlled package. If you had played Spiderland for me in 1991, not only would it have not blown my mind, but would have been immediately discarded and disregarded. Music was not ready for Slint in 1991, and they broke up. A couple of years later, guitarist David Pajo joined a band called Tortoise. Their 1996 release Millions Now Living Will Never Die became a critical addition to the Post-Rock canon, a newly-dubbed genre that would not have been possible without Slint's contribution.

"Breadcrumb Trail" alternates between bars of three and four with jangly, solid-state aplomb. Artificial harmonics rattle and hum, Pajo hits the distortion pedal, and singer Brian McMahan's whispery voice cries out for help. Britt Walford leads "Nosferatu Man" with rimshots and stick clicks, applying cymbals only when absolutely necessary. The drummer's greatest contribution comes from his composition "Don, Aman" and its hauntingly accurate depiction of social anxiety disorder. Again the guitars crunch and moan but the drums never kick in. Any closure or payoff goes unanswered. You flip the record over, almost terrified to hear what comes next, and "Washer" soothes you momentarily. Then McMahan sings "Good night, my love...remember me as you fall to sleep" and you realize the nightmare has only just begun. "For Dinner" builds tension like a 2-liter bottle of soda being shook up. "Good Morning, Captain" takes the now rigidly tight bottle and slowly unscrews the cap, as uncomfortable anxiety gives way to catharsis. You flip the record back over, and listen to the whole thing again. Spiderland is an essential masterpiece of rock music.

Let's forget about influence and importance though. Is this album good? Well I'd say it's much more than that. I've really never heard an album that sounded quite like this one. Much of the vocals are made up of spoken word that tells a story. It really adds to a creepy, tense atmosphere found throughout the album. The guitar riffs really fit the albums title, as I find them to have a "spider-y" feel to them. And of course, as with any good post-rock (or in this case, post-rockish) album, there is a great use of dynamics capable of sending chills down your spine at every turn.

So while this album does carry a very similar feel throughout, it's executed in different and new ways each song. "Washer" is a soothing track built around a drifting guitar riff. "Breadcrumb Trainer" is the most rocker like track on the album, but still carries the vibe the album is known for. Good Morning Captain is the one pure post rock song on the album. It still contains vocals which isn't a staple of the genre, but the whole song has pretty, but not melodic guitar sections that eventually builds into a chaos of "I miss you!!!". The best on the album, and very well executed climax.

If you're interested in dissecting post-rock to it's roots, there's no way you can not have this in your collection. A wonderful and inventive album that the genre owes so much to. A masterpiece in my eyes.

2(+), but remember, there's historical value in this release.

I'm probably one of the few people who actually feels underwhelmed by Good Morning, Captain, but that's only in comparison to the other highlights! Nosferatu Man sounds like a product of the Grunge-era, but it still manages to surpass its genre limitations and create something that has not been done before. Just the mere fact that this track has a groove puts it over most material that the Seattle based bands could offer at the time. The definite stand-out track for me here is Washer which is a truly gorgeous composition. The track offers a pretty simple development pattern, but yet there is so power embedded into this 9 minute performance. If you have any doubts about purchasing the whole album then you can at least do yourself a favor by purchasing this one track off a digital download website of your choice.

This album is essential for fans of post-rock and an excellent addition to any rock music collection!

***** star songs: Nosferatu Man (5:34) Washer (8:50)

**** star songs: Breadcrumb Trail (5:55) Don, Aman (6:28) For Dinner... (5:05) Good Morning, Captain (7:39)

Slint's Spiderland is evocative, emotional, and drove the depth of rock further than any non-prog band ever did, let alone the noise-rock scene from which is emerged. We are probably cheating by classifying math rock and post-rock as prog.

Using simple rock instrumentation, a droning bass, extremely careful use of dynamics, holding back rock's rough power in exchange for tension, Slint takes you on an emotional journey with their spoken, often whispered vocals and imaginitive stories. Good Morning Captain, their variation on the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, is the culmination of this, slowly building up tension in a bone-chilling atmosphere. If you're not breathless by the time this album ends, you probably don't have a soul.

Don’t get me wrong - ‘Spiderland’ was a great musical experience and I have no doubt it was an influence on post-rock pioneers like Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky and probably even Efrim Menuck. Maybe it even was, as so many have claimed, the first post-rock album (although Bark Psychosis’s ‘Hex’ would get my vote for that label).

But in any case this debut album from the band does not factor into any discussion about post-rock and Slint’s influence on it. This is nothing more than a handful of undeveloped, poorly produced and scruffy half-assed recordings by some very young and not very talented Kentucky musicians a couple years before they would finally get their act together. And it’s really an EP, not an album. Other than “Kent” which shows some recognition by the band that drone and feedback can be used to sculpture and song, there is nothing here that remotely resembles what they would release next. The minimalist alternately reminds me of the eighties German band Trio, Dead Kennedys, and the Dead Milkmen. It’s just hard to take seriously.

If you are a completionist and a Slint fan your task is a pretty simple one since they only have two albums. But in reality you’d only be buying this one to be able to say you have everything the band recorded, and that’s not a very good reason to spend money you worked hard for. ‘Spiderland’ is worth hearing, but this one isn’t. One star and not recommended.

peace

The music itself is often haunting in a spare, stripped-down sort of way. But if this is Math Rock, it's more on the level of a grade school primer, with time signatures stretching to odd meters of five or seven but never to anything more complicated (in other words: Henry Cow, they ain't).

Instead, it's the austere anti-Prog simplicity that makes the album so appealing, sounding like an impeccably produced garage band from backwoods Appalachia rehearsing on a dreary late autumn afternoon. The slowly strummed guitars erupt only occasionally onto fuzzed-out feedback, and the tentative vocals are typically heard in half-muttered spoken-word narratives, so quietly miked it's difficult to catch the actual words.

The album was released in 1991, and the band broke up soon afterward. No surprise there: the stark minimalism of their monochrome style was never very durable, and in the 40-some minutes of this one album the group all but exhausted its entire musical vocabulary.

Still, give them credit for being ahead of their time. The half dozen songs here evoke an almost palpable mood of inertia and melancholy better suited to our own collapsing 21st century economy, making the album the perfect soundtrack for times of quiet desperation.

Slint became famous only years after their split up, but finally they have been recognized as the founders of the post-rock movement, that had his true development from 2000 to now. "Spiderland" is not easy to listen, but it is still really original and introspective. Don't miss it, if you want to know the roots that gave birth to GYBE!, Mogwai, Sigur Ros etc.

5/5, above all for its historical value.