TRAVELS IN CONSTANTS (VOL. 21): THE RESCUE

After "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place", which was my introduction to this band, I was almost afraid to give "The Rescue" a listen. Why? Because aforementioned album was so horrible, dull and boring. I was quite amused by a level of...nothingness represented there. Immature ideas and songs, but not a single good thing the youth can provide. Compared to that album (which is one of the worst albums I've ever heard, I must say), "The Rescue" EP sounds almost like a masterpiece. So, this guys actually CAN came up with something more substantial... Maybe they progressed in a two years time. The difference is so huge I was thinking of another group of people under the same name...because the only mutual thing is "post rock".

Indeed, this albums is a typical post-rock template, not groundbreaking at all, and being not so terribly good neither. But it contains pleasant moments, and some smart, wisely chosen sounds. Especially if we consider the fact this one is a pure improvisation, the final result is okay. All the songs are labeled "Day One"...to "Day Eight" and they are improvisations in their home studio. There are some dull and boring moments, it happened more than once that music passes by me without noticing...well the tracks are quite similar. At least it's not hermetic and all the songs are not written in the same key.

It's hard to give impressions for separate tracks...and it's also beside the point. This EP is well focused. The piano is providing a nice touch to the songs, guitars are really, really under control of doing something unpredictable; there are some overdubbed vocals/speech sections which helps a certain track a lot. My complaint goest to a final mix, my taste demands a different ratio of recording levels for each of the instruments. But since they were doing the recording themselves, it's not bad. My another complaint goes on the drums, they're just dull at the moments; I always felt post-rock sensibility needs a skillful jazz drummer with the brushes rather than a standard chack-poom, no matter how slow it might be.

But in a overall picture, I stated more complaints about the EP than good things, it's simply because my complaints can be pigeon-holed, while the good part needs to be experienced. At least there are some good parts here.

This is a huge improvement. Two and a half stars.