by Fourteen Nights at Sea
Fourteen Nights at Sea Minor Light (PBS feature record)
Minor Light by Fourteen Nights at Sea would be a return to form for the Melbourne post-rockers – had they ever lost it.
This is Fourteen Nights at Sea’s third full-length album, after Untitled and Great North . It was recorded by the line-up that included Drew Watson prior to his moving to San Francisco, and mixed and mastered by the new look Fourteen Nights at Sea with Lara Soulio. Fourteen Nights at Sea’s post-rock path is much more Godspeed You! Black Emperor than Mogwai, but they have their own special brand of atmospheric creativity.
The cold and bleak scene of the cover art by Jason Earles, whose art adorned the previous Fourteen Nights at Sea album Great North, and the grey and white vinyl album set the tone perfectly.
Minor Light starts with the bombast of ‘Teeth Marks’, a tsunami of a track that seems to wash away all hope and leave a wasteland. The central three tracks pick up that feel – they’re hauntingly bleak yet achingly beautiful, with a sadness created through deftly controlled restraint. The album finishes with ‘Chiltern’s Justice’ and a more traditional post-rock feel, starting quietly and building slowly to a wall of sound. But this is Fourteen Nights at Sea. There’s a subtle complexity to the effect, a glimmer of hope in a bleak future.
Minor Light (Hobbledehoy Records) is a great new development from one of Australia’s most musically complex post-rock bands.
By Chris Pearson – Pojama People
St Germain Self Titled (Featured on The Breakfast Spread)
French producer Ludvic Navarre, or St Germain, is back with his first full length album in 15 years and his perfectionist ways have paid off, because the result is a glorious mix of Malian sounds, blues samples and precise electronic rhythms.
Many music lovers would remember his 2000 album Tourist and songs like 'Rose Rouge' which had to be one of the biggest ear worms of the early 00's. However, 'St Germain' is different - he started work on this back in 2006, and soon discovered that he wanted to work with Malian instruments and vocals which triggered a long search for the right musicians. And it has all come together without any awkwardness - he's complemented instruments like the koru and the suku beautifully with his trademark samples, making this an album you are sure to hear more of this summer.
By Cat – The Breakfast Spread
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