Early Day Miners
All Harm Ends Here
Secretly Canadian
Over the course of their three albums, Indiana’s Early Day Miners have grown from capable, but slightly non-descript slow-core to elegantly expansive Americana. Credit principle songwriter and band mainstay Daniel Burton’s unending search for the ideal rhythm section for the bulk of this transformation. For All Harm Ends Here, he opts for a more mercurial, more “rock” sound to provide a strong anchor for his and fellow guitarist Joseph Brumley’s octave guitar interplay.
By far the best band dynamic Burton’s come across – even topping the combo that spawned last year’s excellent experimental Sonograph EP – the group’s two defining album statements work from oppositional directions. “The Union Trade” is pulled straight from the ether of a foggy night. Hazy, subdued and formless, it gradually takes shape through driving drums and bass. The result, after the guitars muscle up for a rock riff coda, is awesome. “All Harm,” on the other hand, begins with all instruments in lock-step, peddling low E-string notes until the chorus when the guitars break skyward, splintering the sadcore spiral for good.
Perfect for the pall of late winter months when fragile emotional states call for somber, beautiful music for both sustenance and solace, All Harm Ends Here should be bittersweet enough of a balm to last until spring.
Secretly Canadian: http://www.secretlycanadian.com
