by Fourteen Nights at Sea
Nothing is rushed in the world of Fourteen Nights at Sea. In fact in some respects their arrival into Melbourne’s instrumental post-rock community happened after the genre had risen to its zenith. Rather than a sense that the band had ‘missed the boat’ however, instead we hear a band that has listened and learned to all that has gone before, and has started making records that encapsulate the very best of what an entire sub-genre had to offer.
Despite playing around Melbourne since the mid naughties, Fourteen Nights at Sea didn’t release their debut full length album until 2011 (following the EP ‘Isola’ in 2008). Again with no rush, we now get our first taste of the second album from Fourteen Nights at Sea almost two years after the self-titled epic of 2011.
It is said that all good things take time. And time is something that Fourteen Nights at Sea exploit handsomely on the new album Great North. The album’s opener ‘Glass Monster’ picks up exactly where the last album left off – slow burning textures yielding to a wall of triumphant drums, bass and guitars…so many guitars! From here it’s layers of feedback underneath single shards of electric guitar trying desperately to find air amidst the sonic haze. When there is some air on this album it comes from the album’s center-piece, and ambitious ten-minute track called Tired Hands. This work sets Fourteen Nights at Sea apart from many of their contemporaries as it clearly displays a capacity for songwriting beyond the occasionally formulaic highs and lows of many bands working in this realm.
Wonderfully recorded, immaculately conceived and grand in scale – take some time and immerse yourself in Great North by Fourteen Nights at Sea.
Out now through Hobbledehoy Records or at http://www.fourteennightsatsea.com/
by Owen McKern - PBS Program Manager
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