Rapidly Aging : " You're Not Yourself Lately'

 

The brainchild of this post-rock project is Shalor Howell of the Atlanta sludge metal band Canopy that has been featured here. While it is an instrumental, the album samples from the 1974 film  "The Man Who Sleeps " provide the narrative. Some great moody guitar tones are captured here, allowing the guitar to make the emotional connection that fills the void where vocals would be. "Fleeting Moment" has some pedal steel layered around it that adds another dimension of texture, keeping the sonic journey flowing. I'll admit, as a singer, instrumental music is not normally my thing, though there have been exceptions to this. So it speaks volumes about this music's depth if I like it. I think this is due to the melancholy it casts over things. 

The one band whose instrumental pieces I am a big fan of is, of course, Swans, and there is some common ground here as it at times brings "Soundtracks For the Blind" to mind, though this is more inviting rather than using the combative element that Gira unsettles you with like a David Lynch movie, this is more David Croenberg. though very pastoral in the open landscapes summoned to the mind's eye with "the Negative Thought Loops" before the distorted chords crunch down like a threatening storm.At the end of the day, the haunting guitar melodies are what hook you in. There is a similar sense of longing as what Mogwai once invoked on the song "Awoken From a Bad Dream to an Even Worse Reality," the sludgey chord lays into this to create a more cascading dynamic. So if you are a fan of his other band, you are not going to be forgotten about on this album. 

I like how the sample bridges over into "How Quickly the Ground Falls Out Beneath You". This song gets heavier sonically than it does metal, though some crunch comes in to create tension. "Unsaved" has more of an RWAKE rock n roll feel while still coloring the edges with ambiance. The album closes with "To Keep From". Violin chimes in at the beginning, then the song sprawls out in many ways; it feels likea summary of the moods captured so far on this album. I will give this album a 9.5, as it captures a unqiue place in the landscape of this genre, while not turning his back on his previous work. 

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