Like a star blanket
(Brightblack Morning Light @ SxSW by Damon Green) I like to be overly-verbose for the most part. I think it's big and clever to confuse people with multi-syllabic words, also fun for alienating the large part of my readership who have visited while googling "extras are you having a laugh." I also enjoy over-categorisation, in training for a career in the journalistic arts; these things become a neccessary evil - comparison is, of course, the best way to describe the sound of an artiste or act to another person.
Which makes it all the more frustrating that I can't find the words I want to use to describe Brightblack Morning Light. I first heard a track on the ever-lovely To Die By Your Side, who put it thus: "Brightblack Morning Light are the sound of the sun rising. Over sand dunes. With a chill in the air. As flames from a dying fire fight for life. While you rest in a loving embrace."
Which is a lovely way of putting it, very pretty indeed. I struggle with the flowery language myself. I tend to get all art-school and arch, instead of just documenting the emotional impact of a record. But again, Brightblack Morning Light fall beyond my limited capabilities in this field, I just find it very hard to explain.
Brightblack Morning Light are not a band that fall snugly into a genre or even a subgenre. Sure, there's a jazzy edge to it, but it's not jazz. There's swamp blues, but it's not swamp blues. There's tickly high-hats, reverb-drenched electric piano swells, the most vague vocals you'll hear outside of a My Bloody Valentine album and these looping, hypnotic guitar riffs. Drums are not considered a neccessity throughout, although they are there; vocals are treated similarly - they're another instrument; the mood is captured in the lethargic, almost narcotic grace-notes.
As per Coxon, I can definitely see the sunrise aesthetic of Brightblack Morning Light, and I can just as readily see the chill in the air, the mist of said sunrise lifting very, very slowly. I lapse into my safety net of comparisons and pull out Tarentel or Triosk, but I am missing the point: Brightblack Morning Light is background music that's as important and interesting as music that's very much in your face, just in a completely different way. And for that, it's worth your listening. I can't tell you why, but I think you should listen now.
The Music
Brightblack Morning Light - Friend Of Time
Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight
The 'fo
Artist: Brightblack Morning Light
Website: thebrightblackmorninglight.com; MySpace
Label: Matador
Recommended: Brightblack Morning Light (metacritic 72)
Buy: Amazon
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Opiate - While You Were Sleeping
Tags: Brightblack Morning Light; instrumental; jazz; blues; electric piano
Which makes it all the more frustrating that I can't find the words I want to use to describe Brightblack Morning Light. I first heard a track on the ever-lovely To Die By Your Side, who put it thus: "Brightblack Morning Light are the sound of the sun rising. Over sand dunes. With a chill in the air. As flames from a dying fire fight for life. While you rest in a loving embrace."
Which is a lovely way of putting it, very pretty indeed. I struggle with the flowery language myself. I tend to get all art-school and arch, instead of just documenting the emotional impact of a record. But again, Brightblack Morning Light fall beyond my limited capabilities in this field, I just find it very hard to explain.
Brightblack Morning Light are not a band that fall snugly into a genre or even a subgenre. Sure, there's a jazzy edge to it, but it's not jazz. There's swamp blues, but it's not swamp blues. There's tickly high-hats, reverb-drenched electric piano swells, the most vague vocals you'll hear outside of a My Bloody Valentine album and these looping, hypnotic guitar riffs. Drums are not considered a neccessity throughout, although they are there; vocals are treated similarly - they're another instrument; the mood is captured in the lethargic, almost narcotic grace-notes.
As per Coxon, I can definitely see the sunrise aesthetic of Brightblack Morning Light, and I can just as readily see the chill in the air, the mist of said sunrise lifting very, very slowly. I lapse into my safety net of comparisons and pull out Tarentel or Triosk, but I am missing the point: Brightblack Morning Light is background music that's as important and interesting as music that's very much in your face, just in a completely different way. And for that, it's worth your listening. I can't tell you why, but I think you should listen now.
The Music
Brightblack Morning Light - Friend Of Time
Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight
The 'fo
Artist: Brightblack Morning Light
Website: thebrightblackmorninglight.com; MySpace
Label: Matador
Recommended: Brightblack Morning Light (metacritic 72)
Buy: Amazon
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Opiate - While You Were Sleeping
Tags: Brightblack Morning Light; instrumental; jazz; blues; electric piano
No comments:
Post a Comment