1 Mile North/Colophon/The Wind-Up Bird
Conduction. Convection. Radiation.
Music Fellowship
The title of this post-rock triple-bill deals with different ways of transferring energy. It’s a fitting indicator for groups focused on sound emanation and other amorphous sonics. All three of these groups are heavily into electronically-based drones, but none more so than 1 Mile North. There’s quite a bit of the Lost in Translation soundtrack inherent in the evocative minimalist drones and echoes that gently tug the heartstrings. It’s hard to say what it is about a certain intersection of minor chords that makes these tracks so melancholy, but the quiet rumble is quite beautiful.
Colophon, a secondary outlet for one of the drone maestros in Tarentel, begins with a tenser, more nervous crackle of lightning-storm effluence. The energy soon settles in the ghostly pall of inertia and sadness, trapped in an ever-encroaching ring of hoar frost.
Discernable kinetic energy boils throughout The Wind-Up Bird’s first offering, “Violin & Trumpet.” It provides a much needed break from the sustained chords and prefabricated feel left by the unending trail of keyboards of the previous bands. The organic effect is short-lived, as the Bird heads south with “Voice & Sine Wave” and “Guitar & Bass.” The latter, though expressly human grown, is full of the understated thrum of its predecessors.
In the end, what we’re left with are three bands that have cultivated a “house” sound that yearns for movement, but is decidedly sendentary. And with what’s sure to be brutal winter looming just over the horizon, I know exactly how they feel.
Music Fellowship: http://www.musicfellowship.com
