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Lullaby
CD Album 2003 | Silber 024 9 tracks, 59 minutes $12 ($18 international, $5 download (256 kbps, ~107 megs)) : More info track listing: a beautiful night sky, the daylight and the sun, to shine on him one last time, he had the smell of wyoming sagebrush, and the scent of the trees, from the snowy range, our lives will never be the same, we miss matt terribly, we think of him all the time, we miss matt terribly (reprise) |
Some albums bore you until
you fall asleep. Others try too hard to get you there (they usually have
spacy synths, bland classical guitars, streaming water sounds and subliminal
messages). And then, a few lull you to sleep in the simplest ways. If Thousands
want you to doze off. In fact, the booklet of {^Lullaby specifies that
it should be listened to "as low a volume as possible to induce & aid
in slumber" and the jewel case has a warning sticker: "May cause drowsiness."
Using guitars and synthesizers, Aaron Molina and Christian McShane have
recorded a continuous hour-long drone piece. It hovers in mid-air, just
slightly out of reach, moving slowly and hypnotically. You can loose yourself
in it -- loose track of time and space. At high volume, the hum of the
musicians¹ amplifiers occasionally threatens to take over the quiet
noise-based soundscapes, but if you follow the instructions it disappears,
blending with the background noises of your surroundings. In the first
and last thirds of the album, someone steps up to the microphone and speaks
softly. The echo effect makes it very difficult to hear (even more if you
have decided to listen at low volume), but in track eight the message,
repeated over and over, is clear: "Our lives will never be the same / We
miss Matt terribly / We think of him all the time." It gives the pieces
a note of sorrow and all of a sudden what sounded like an exercise in experimental
slumber music turns to a new kind of elegy.
~ François Couture,
All-Music Guide
To the uninitiated, Lullaby
can be a long, drawn-out drone symphony stretched ad infinitum, ad nauseam,
requiring attention-span endurance, much like listening to a 24-plus-hour
Mahler marathon or raptly watching the paint dry on the wall. On the other
hand, however, this follow-up to 2002's Candice Recorder may be
an all-natural sedative as potent as a strong dose of Ambien.
As an exercise in complete
yet controlled abandonment, If Thousands is an ambient synth-saturated
free-form sound sculpting resulting from an unlikely cooperation of the
classically trained vocalist and guitarist Christian McShane and punk bassist
Aaron Molina, based out of Duluth, Minnesota (also the home of the brave
Low), whose hibernation-inducing arctic winters seem to spawn snorecore
creations. By learning entirely new families of instruments outside their
normal repertoire, McShane and Molina give way to endless possibilities
to sound placement—twelve mics were employed during recording.
To give a complete picture
of If Thousands, imagine a more narcoleptic Flying Saucer Attack and Windy
& Carl getting their crash-course education in the conservatory halls,
pretty knee-deep in Philip Glass-type incrementalism. That said, McShane
hasn't really ditched his classical pedigree: the entire album is a whole
musical entity broken up in suite-like sections—distorted sonata form,
if you will. The D-note pedal point serves as a seamless running thread
from the first track to the closing number.
For those who are willing
to be sunk deep into the abyss of shredded samples, loops, and noises,
If Thousands makes the journey into blissful nothingness all the more pleasant.
~ Nancy Hutagalung, Losing
Today
While the music on If Thousands’
second album is subtle, its marketing is anything but. The CD has a “may
cause drowsiness” sticker – the kind that’s normally found on pill bottles.
Just like some rock bands’ liner notes instruct you to “turn it up!” the
booklet of Lullaby recommends a low volume “to induce & aid in slumber.”
The promo sheet drives this point home, even quoting a review that compared
the group to a warm blanket.
While Aaron Molina and Christian
McShane started If Thousands as an experiment, Lullaby fits in perfectly
with well-established bands such as Landing and Stars of the Lid. Rarely
does the album rise above a whisper-thin wash of keyboard drones. (As Molina
is credited with guitars and drums, one wonders just how quietly those
parts were mixed into the final product, if they remain at all.) Compressed
vocals appear early in the album, but they disappear within minutes and
are seldom heard again; similarly, keyboards occasionally flourish to what
can only be called “full volume,” but just for a fleeting moment.
What’s really amazing is
that the entire album was recorded live in a single take with no overdubs.
Twelve microphones were set up around the room, while McShane and Molina
meandered without any apparent structural guidelines for a full hour.
If Thousands set out to
create an audio sleep aid; they’ve succeeded, and that’s a compliment.
Take it however you want, I suppose, but Lullaby will help you fall
asleep if you let it.
~ Paul J. Lombardi, Action
Man
There's a warning sticker
affixed to the case of Lullaby that states "May Cause Drowsiness
- Use Care When Operating A Car Or Dangerous Machinery". Now normally,
that would be the kiss of death for most bands. But It feels incredibly
appropriate when you start taking in If Thousands' latest effort. There's
certainly a drowsy feel that permeates the nearly 60 minutes on this disc,
and one that constantly remains inviting throughout countless listens.
Based out of Duluth, Minnesota
(those Minnesota winters must be to blame for the state's crop of somnambulistic-oriented
bands: Low, Best Boy Electric, Rivulets, etc.), If Thousands is the duo
of Aaron Molina and Christian McShane. At first, the pairing of a classically
trained vocalist and bassist from punk bands would seem like the last thing
to work. At the very least, it would produce music very different than
what If Thousands create. But the more you think about it, the more it
makes sense, as if the duo's backgrounds sort of cancel eachother out and
open up new avenues and depths.
And believe me, if there's
one thing that Lullaby has in spades, it's depth. The core of Lullaby
is a seemingly endless grey drone, drenching the CD in static like a line
of rainy clouds on the horizon. But as with the best drone music, it's
far from static, but rather moves and changes like fog as it seeps down
into the valleys as evening approaches. This is most likely due to the
manner in which the album was recorded. Rather than mic the instruments,
the recording room was set up with 12 microphones strategically placed
"to give the listener a real sense of spatial sonic distinction". In other
words, it worked.
Buried deep within that
"spatial sonic distinction" are Molina and McShane, making all sorts of
noise with what I assume are battered guitars, analog synths with their
transistors torn out, and other assorted noisemakers. You get the feeling
that if you could just peel back the layers of noise, you could figure
out what the duo is doing. But as it stands, you're left with the only
vaguest impressions.
Whenever something does
break through, such as the sad Moog on "And The Scent Of The Trees" or
the static-riddled spoken word that opens and closes the album, it feels
like a discovery. But more often than not, the duo is content to hide behind
the cloud and merely tickle your consciousness with bizarre little noises,
intriguing loops, and infinitely long reverberations.
The duo recommends that
you play this album at as low a volume as possible, using it as a sleeping
aid. But for me, the ultimate test of a drone record is if it stands up
to both passive and active listening. If I can find the record as enthralling
when I listen to it at work as it is when I drift off to sleep, then that's
some good drone. Lullaby meets both of those criteria, and then
some.
~ Jason Morehead, Opuszine
From Raymond Scott's Soothing
Sounds for Baby through New Age mystics Aeoliah and Michel Genest on
up to the current crop of snorecore enthusiasts like Windy & Carl and
Stars of the Lid, artists have been recreating the sonic equivalent of
sleeping brainwaves for many years. (For those of you looking for a more
familiar reference point, imagine the beginning of Pink Floyd's "Shine
on You Crazy Diamond" going on for an hour without Gilmour's classic four-note
guitar break interrupting the flow.) Silber's own Aarktica had a stunning
entry into the genre with No Solace in Sleep a few years back, and
they return to the sleep-inducing centerstage with this release. In fact,
If Thousands (the Duluth-based duo of Aaron Molina and Christian McShane)
even include the following suggestion in their liners: "Please listen to
this recording at as low a volume as possible to induce & aid in slumber."
Another nice touch is the medical warning sticker, "May cause drowsiness;
alcohol may increase this effect" on the jewel case! The resulting subtle
background hum (one lengthy track with index points) carries the listener
on a magic carpet ride through dreamland, with the occasional, distant,
barely audible short story narration ("The Daylight and The Sun") and the
mantric repetitive lyric of "We miss Matt terribly."
Another Floydian reference
is the sonar bleeps (from "Echoes") that quietly drift into the end of
"He Had the Smell of Wyoming Sagebrush." And for a visual reference point
to this amazing sonic exploration of inner space, imagine if in that old
60s classic sci-fi film "Fantastic Voyage," the scientists had been inserted
into your temporal lobe and traversed the synapses in your brain exploring
your unconsciousness in an experiment to discover the source of your dreams.
That's one trip I'd like to take and If Thousands provide the spaceship.
Like floating in amniotic fluid, kids from 96 days to 96 years will be
soothed into a somnambulistic state of slumber—the perfect sleep aid, whether
you're putting grandma or the new born down for the night.
~ Jeff Penczak, Fakejazz
This Minnesota duo creates
a nice bit of atmospheric drone utilizing guitar, bass, keys, and other
random noises. Although there are ten tracks listed on the back Lullaby
plays as one piece, and has simply been tracked into ten parts for ease
of jumping around, maybe for radio play? Apparently they decided to abandon
their familiar instruments and switch to instruments they had no experience
playing in order to come up with new and fresh approaches to drone making.
Did they succeed? Well, I have heard a boat load of “dronescape” records
over the last five years or so, and I can not really say that what If Thousands
presents here really sounds all that much different from much of the Kranky
Records discography. It starts out with a gently swelling tone, layers
gradually get added on, some distant, echoed voice appears, then fades
away. Like most ambient records, it doesn’t really travel to far from the
starting point, but that really isn’t the point with this kind of stuff
is it? Lullaby is a very pleasant listen, it holds up quite well
to repeated bath tub/couch/recliner/sleep listens. What more is there really?
If you dig ambient drones you will like this.
~ Brian Faulkner, Aural
Innovations
If Thousands' Lullaby
album bears the note, "Please listen to this recording at as low a volume
as possible to induce & aid in slumber." That's no ordinary warning,
but If Thousands is not an ordinary band. Christian McShane and Aaron Molina
have both played in other bands, yet for If Thousands they decided to purposefully
play instruments they weren't skilled at, to try to explore the ways that
inexperience can lead to brilliant surprises. Though McShane mostly plays
keyboards for the group, and Molina mostly guitars, both also use whatever
they can find to make unusual and unexpected sounds. Their Yellowstone
album includes "children's instruments, walkie talkies, circuit benders,
samplers, noises" among the instruments they used. Their vision of music
seems to include whatever they can find that works. And that approach does
work. In the last few months, they've released two albums, each with its
own mood but both fantastic. Lullaby (Silber Records) is exactly that,
an hourlong instrumental trip through gentle and dreamy sounds. Yet it's
also much more, as established early on by the way a man reading a melancholy
poem is looped over and over. Their Yellowstone (Chairkickers Music)
album is similar in its use of repetition, mysterious sounds and an overwhelmingly
contemplative atmosphere, yet it is also filled with surprises. There's
even vocals on a few songs, one a haunting cover of Joy Division's "Isolation."
On both albums, what's especially striking is the duo's ability to pull
you into their world, to immerse you in a mood. Their music has true presence;
their anything-goes, open-ended approach to music is something music fans
should be grateful for.
~ Dave Heaton, Erasing Clouds
If Thousands second album
comes with a sticker stating, "May cause drowsiness. Alcohol may
intensify this effect. Use care when operating a car or dangerous
machinery." If that doesn't tell you what you're in for, maybe the
title Lullaby or track titles such as "A Beautiful Night
Sky," "From the Snowy Range," & "The Daylight & the Sun" will.
If not I'll tell you anyway so feel free to read on. The Minnesota-based
duo of Aaron Molina (guitars, vocals, drums, & noises) & Christian
McShane (keyboards, Moog, theremin, samples, loops, & noises) constructs
a minimal sound that immediately has my eyes flickering toward a slowly
moving curtain in an open window. The album has that sort of meditative
effect, & I have no problem what so ever seeing people falling asleep
to this record, & I don't mean that as a criticism in anyway.
On the contrary it's darkly serene tones are destined to create some amazing
dreams, & if there ever was a safe way into the unconscious, the sounds
of Lullaby might very well be the perfect choice. Could
easily be filed right next to people like Stars of the Lid & label-mate
Aarktica, & if that's not a compliment I'm not sure what is.
~ Mats Gustafson, The Broken
Face