96.
Album title: Spidermilk
Artist: The Mercury Tree
Nationality: American
Sub-genre: Heavy Prog
Fun (or not) fact: originally I thought the album title was the artist. Oh, Trollheart! You do make us smile! This was the album which more or less turned me against checking out future heavy prog albums, which may be its sin, or mine, or may be justified. I guess we'll see as we go through the list and check out albums I wasn't bothering with due to their being labelled as Heavy Prog. I do remember I didn't finish this and I really did not like what I heard, but again, we'll see how a listen to it with regard to actually reviewing it goes.
The Mercury Tree were formed in Portland, Oregon in 2004, but due to the many lineup changes that plague not only prog bands but most bands throughout their career, they seem never to have actually settled down to release an album until seven years later. Since then they've had five, of which this is the latest. They have some vague connection to Smashing Pumpkins – one of their drummers played with them, or something – but that's hardly relevant to this review. They're described as playing spaced-out shoegaze experimental and improvisational post-rock. Right.
The first thing I found, and it really annoyed me with this album was that the guitar was, presumably deliberately, out of tune, so as “I Am a Husk” begins I have already a sense of disorientation and an abiding dislike of this album. Other than the out-of-tune-ness the song isn't bad, but it's going to be hard to maintain my interest (if any) in the album if it all continues like this. I suppose I should be thankful for small mercies that there aren't any epics here: the longest track comes in at a shade over seven minutes. Even so, I can't say I'm particularly impressed by this and they're not making any friends here.
Okay, I see this is actually called a “17 note microtonal scale”, whatever that may be, rather than the music being out of tune, but it sounds the same to me as if everything is out of whack. I fully accept this is not incompetence or inexperience on the part of the band; it's all intentional. That doesn't make me feel much better. This microtonal nonsense continues (as I fear it may throughout the album) on “Vestments”, where it gets almost unbearable with a jazzy riff that just grates on my ears and sets my teeth on edge. I remember I definitely only lasted one track on this with the original listen, so I've already improved on that. How far I'll get this time is anybody's guess, but I don't expect to be finishing it. I have my thumb poised and ready over the button for the ejector seat.
It's very hard to write anything about this when it's so dissonant; the vocal is okay, but just okay, and the playing is fine I guess, but it's hard to concentrate on it when notes keep rising and falling and going all over the place, making it very difficult to get any sort of a handle on the music, which does seem to be broadly guitar-based – I have not yet, to my knowledge, heard any keyboards, but they could very well be in there for all I know. Or care. Yeah, apparently they are, not that you'd know it. Both of these tracks have been uptempo, brisk affairs that I could not hand on heart even call close to prog rock, but then maybe it's prog Jim, but not as we (or more specifically, I) know it. Or want to know it.
“Arc of an Ilk” is, where I think, I give up. There's piano I think, some sort of hollow bell sound, all microtonal or to me out of tune, a more falsetto vocal from Ben Spees, rippling guitar from Igliashon Jones and a steady percussive beat from the rhythm section but hell no this is where I bail. The only thing that's going through my mind as I listen to this is please, please for the love of Cthulhu and all the elder gods shut the hell up and go away!
Remember this?
Songs / Tracks Listing
1. I Am A Husk (4:48)
2. Vestments (4:39)
3. Arc Of An Ilk (6:35)
4. I'll Pay (6:22)
5. Interglacial (1:45)
6. Superposition Of Silhouettes (3:43)
7. Kept Man (3:15)
8. (Throw Up My) Hands (2:59)
9. Disremembered (7:07)
10. Brake For Genius (3:32)
11. Tides Of The Spine (4:33)
Total time 49:18
Line-up / Musicians
- Igliashon Jones / guitar
- Ben Spees / guitar, keyboards, vocals, mixing
- Oliver Campbell / bass
- Connor Reilly / drums
With:
- Tony Mowe / alto & baritone saxophones
I'm not crazy about the idea of not completing albums – seems a cheat somehow. But there's just no way I could subject myself to this for another forty-odd minutes, and I doubt I'd have anything good to say about the album were I to subject myself to such torture. So thanks, but no thanks.
Again, looks like my first instinct was correct and I should have left this well alone.
Rating: N/A