WINTER HYMN COUNTRY HYMN SECRET HYMN

I’ve listened to this album numerous times just trying to get a sense of what it’s all about, and what exactly the group is trying to accomplish with their music. I’m not quite getting it yet, although who knows what time may bring.

In some ways these guys remind me a bit of Explosions in the Sky, in that they sometimes seem to be making noise for the sake of noise, and with no other apparent purpose in mind. Unlike Explosions though, DMST relies a bit too heavily on keyboards for a post-rock band in my opinion. Explosions accomplish their spiraling sounds with guitars, bass and drums, all the instruments God intended (okay, the Beatles intended) us to use in making music. DMST’s Canadian brethren Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt Zion and Canadian Mounties Glee Club with Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la Band (you’re right, I’m just amusing myself at this point) bring a sense of classical reverence to their music by employing stringed instruments, ponderously slow movements, and a calloused sense of indifference. Bark Psychosis use blunt force trauma to get their point across. All these post-rock bands have a clear method to their respective madnesses, but no these guys. They’re kind of like the generic-label post-rock band of this generation.

That’s not to say there aren’t some interesting tracks on the album – there are. But the majority lack any central theme or pervasive sort of character to make them stand out.

One notable exception is “Auberge Le Mouton Noir”, a simply hypnotic and slowly- building work that captures your attention and draws you in to its brooding buildup. Even the tempo changes and occasional sculptured white noise are poetic and meaningful. “War on Want” also has a certain sense of focus to it that is quite appealing, but unfortunately this one just kind of dies out instead of being fully explored. Too bad.

“Ontario Plates” has kind of an attention-grabbing crescendo a couple minutes before the ending, but the horn players leading up to this don’t seem to know what they want to accomplish, so they end up vacillating between a kind of jazzy swoon and earthy mood music that leaves me pretty much unfulfilled. The closing “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!” seems like it might be left over from some other recording session, or maybe was dropped in to fill some space on the CD, and “Horns of a Rabbit” may have been a brilliant idea, but I failed to envision what that idea was supposed to be. The rest of the album is largely forgettable I’m afraid.

This is my first Do Make Say Think album, and may end up being my last. On the other hand, this isn’t a deep enough genre that one can exclude a band from their collection based on one weak album, and maybe some of the earlier ones are more interesting. Let’s hope so. This one isn’t quite good enough to feel like three stars though, so two it is and I’ll probably bury it in the stacks for a while.

peace