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In Tall Buildings — Akinetic (March 2, 2018)

In Tall Buildings — Akinetic (March 2, 2018)

          In Tall Buildings — Akinetic (March 2, 2018)  In Tall Buildings — Akinetic (March 2, 2018)Ξ• )↑→      Můj nový objev sólového projektu kytaristy NOMO a písničkáře Erika Halla z Chicaga, IL. Druhé album na Western Vinyl po albu Driver. Materiál natočený ve třech studiích: Erik’s Home, Chicago, IL; MINBAL, Chicago, IL; The Sparkle, Pacific City, OR. Akinetic, nové album od textaře/multiinstrumentalisty Erik Halla a v rámci polymathického projektu In Tall Buildings prozrazuje, že jeho tvůrce se ponořil do alegorií komunikace, ztráty, impulsu, zlozvyku a masového denialismu. S přizváním producenta a inženýra Briana Decka (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine) Hall manévruje s výše zmíněným tématem s jasem a přehledností, přináší své dosud nejvíce inteligentní a písničkářsky zaměřené dílo. Kromě již zmíněného jsou zde už jen dva hosté: Heather Woods Broderick zpívá v písni Days In Clover; Elliot Bergman hraje na flétnu, hoboj, klarinet a fagot v písních Siren Song a Wake Up. Tedy v nepatrné míře. Jsou zde zřetelné kontrasty čistě akustických a lineárně hladkých elektrických tónů, mírná tempa, design je spolehlivě vyvážený. Když pracoval ve svém domě s Deckem v Chicagu, výsledek úsilí Hallovi přinesl deset skladeb prostorného a texturovaného autorského popu — jedno z nejrozsáhlejších, velmi soustředěně a hbitě zaznamenaných domácích studiových alb, co mi paměť sahá. Zní to jako Either/Or (Elliott Smith)  filtrované skrz  album Petra Gabriela — So. A trochu alba od Midlake. Tam, kde jeho předchozí tituly představovaly přirozené dokumenty o jeho muzikantství a písničce, Akinetic vznikl z úmyslného psaní v konkrétních popových formách, lyricky podepřených tím, co vypozoroval o moderní kultuře, a to její fixaci na technologickém pseudoprogresu za cenu přímého sdělení. Spíše než jen zabydlet se v cizím pokoji, Hall chtěl psát písně s úmyslem, které by se se vzdálenými posluchači propojilo přímo, místo aby je jen pasivně pozval a čekal. To, že toho všeho bylo dosaženo jedním člověkem, hrajícího na každý nástroj, citlivě vedeného sobě blízkým veteránem~koproducentem, povyšuje Akinetic jako největší level, kterého dosáhl v rámci In Tall Buildings. Společně volně propojují deformovanou rytmickou kytaru a klávesy do zvukové scény, díky níž se tyto nástroje téměř neodlišují od dalších kytar, bubnů a basů pod Hallovými harmonizovanými vokály. Hypnotické, sofistikované, snové. A snad ještě melancholické a tzv. freewheeling, což zní tak samozřejmě jako moje volnoběžka~koloběžka na cestě z mírného kopce na lithiový pohon. Řečeno stroze. Vyznačuje se úžasnou bezstarostnou nádherou, která se stává ještě působivější při opakovaných hraních, třeba i bílého limitovaného vinylu.
÷    Solo project from NOMO guitarist Erik Hall moves from Afro~beat to reflective singer~songwriter indie folk.
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Album release: March 2, 2018
Record Label: Western Vinyl
Recording Location: Erik’s Home, Chicago, IL; MINBAL, Chicago, IL; The Sparkle, Pacific City, OR
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, white
Duration:     36:58
Tracks:
01. Beginning to Fade     3:34
02. Akinetic     4:11
03. Long Way Down     3:28
04. Overconscious     3:47
05. Cascadia     3:39
06. Siren Song     4:24
07. Curtain     3:44
08. New Moon     1:34
09. Days in Clover     3:47
10. Wake Up     4:50
℗ 2018 Western Vinyl
Credits:
••    Rick Alverson Cover Photo
••    Benjamin Balcom Engineer
••    Jared Bell Design
••    Elliot Bergman Woodwind
••    Josh Bonati Mastering
••    Peter Broderick Engineer
••    Brian Deck Engineer, Mixing, Producer
••    Erik Hall Composer, Engineer
••    Heather Woods Broderick Vocals
÷    Written and Performed by: Erik Hall
÷    Vocals on “Days In Clover”: Heather Woods Broderick
÷    Woodwinds on “Siren Song” and “Wake Up”: Elliot Bergman
÷    Produced and Mixed by: Brian Deck
÷    Recording: Brian Deck and Erik Hall
÷    Additional Engineering: Benjamin Balcom at Minbal, Peter Broderick at The Sparkle
÷    Mastering: Josh Bonati
Description from Rough Trade:
Ξ• )↑→      Akinetic, the new album from Chicago songwriter and multi~instrumentalist Erik Hall’s one~man polymathic project In Tall Buildings sees its creator plunge headlong into allegories of communication, loss, impulse, vice, and mass~denialism. With the addition of producer and engineer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine) Hall crashes through the aforementioned subject matter with brightness and lucidity, yielding his most intelligent and focused songwriting yet. Working out of his house with Deck in Pilsen, Chicago, Hall’s efforts yield ten tracks of spacious and textured handmade pop, comprising one of the most sharply written and deftly recorded home~studio albums in memory. Due out March 2nd 2018 on Western Vinyl, Akinetic could not have transpired in any other time. Since his 2015 LP, Driver, Erik Hall has produced records for ambient artist Justin Walter and labelmates Lean Year, all while touring perpetually and sowing the seeds for his own new album.
Ξ• )↑→      Where his previous titles were natural documents of his musicianship and songcraft, Akinetic arose from deliberate intent to write in concrete pop forms, lyrically informed by what he observed of modern culture, namely its fixation on technology~driven pseudo~progress at the cost of direct communication. “Rather than merely dwell in an inviting musical bed,” Hall states, “I wanted to write songs with intentionality that would more directly declare themselves to a listener instead of just passively inviting them in.”
Ξ• )↑→      True to aim, album~starter “Beginning to Fade” gets to the point, offering a few seconds of growling guitar chords and piano before the hook bursts in declaring the tone of affairs. The title track follows with stabs of determined synth, painted over with Hall’s verdant three~part harmonies bearing lyrics of one of the record’s core ideas: anemic communication and shoulder.”
Ξ• )↑→      The album continues on~theme exploring the struggle of impulse versus discipline on “Overconscious”, and the mass~denial of highly probabilistic cataclysm on “Cascadia” whose title refers to the oft~overlooked Pacific Northwest subduction zone, arguably prone to catastrophic volcanic destruction any day now. Understated breakthrough “Siren Song” propels on a motorik thump and mellotron that ramps to a gratifying collision of mangled drums and guitar; a moment of unrestrained catharsis on an otherwise satisfyingly groomed record. From here, the warm Moog~laden interlude “New Moon” marks the start of Akinetic’s come~down, leading into the undeniably beautiful Heather Woods Broderick duet “Days in Clover”. These junctures of space and texture provide a window into Hall’s ambient predilections, revealing them as a vital part of his toolkit. He’s not merely a singer~songwriter… He is a sound~designer who writes good songs.
Ξ• )↑→      The epilogue “Wake Up” takes classic In Tall Buildings form with fluttering guitar, softly thumping drums, and Hall’s trademark production flourishes. Tape~crushed voices chirp behind the instruments (all played by Hall, as per the rest of the album) as our host poetically urges us to do what the song’s title suggests. The lights slowly fade up on Akinetic showing it for exactly what it is: a crystal clear, well~crafted montage of honest emotion, with pointed social commentary crouching just beneath the topsoil. That this was all achieved by one person playing every instrument, gently guided by a kindred and veteran co~producer, denotes Akinetic as the greatest height yet reached for In Tall Buildings.
AllMusic Review by Marcy Donelson; Score: ****
•★•       The third album by In Tall Buildings, the project of Chicago songwriter~multi~instrumentalist Erik Hall, Akinetic delivers further on the allure of his prior LPs. With even richer textures, it’s an immersive sound that brings to mind bands like Talk Talk and the War on Drugs while remaining just as distinct. Unlike those bands, and with the exception of a clarinet solo on his self~titled debut, Hall performed and home’recorded every element of his first two albums himself. On Akinetic, he still handled nearly all of the performances, but brought in Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine) to produce and co~record at his home. Together, they loosely weave distorted rhythm guitar and keyboards into a soundscape that makes those instruments almost indistinguishable from further guitars, drums, and bass under Hall’s also~layered vocal harmonies to open “Beginning to Fade.” Sounding as if they’re all being strummed together, the track establishes the ambition of an album that goes on to alternate between sparer, intimate passages and lush expanses. Throughout, distorted timbres contrast with pure acoustic ones and smoother electronic tones. Particularly conspicuous on the title track, the songs also set irregular rhythms against simple, steady ones. It’s all part of a reliably off~balance design, as are wistful melodies and lyrics that seem to long for clarity and connection. Even Akinetic’s moderate tempos never feel relaxed, as components remain dreamily at odds and attempts at unison, like on the instrumental “New Moon,” fall off pitch. It’s Hall’s weightiest album yet, distinguished by stretches of un~pristine gorgeousness that only become more impressive with repeat plays.   •★•         https://www.allmusic.com/
About In Tall Buildings
Ξ• )↑→      In Tall Buildings began as the long~in~the~making solo project of Chicago musician Erik Hall. As guitarist and multi~instrumentalist for Afro~beat revivalists Nomo, Hall’s touring schedule was busy for the majority of the mid~ to late 2000s. During downtime from Nomo and other commitments, Hall chipped away at his home recordings of extremely textured, wistful folk~pop. Between 2006 and 2008, he fine~tuned the eight tracks that would make up his first solo outing, choosing the moniker In Tall Buildings midway through the recording process. The name reflected on both the urban environments where he spent his childhood and the high~rise apartment where he recorded and mixed the songs. Hall handled all vocal duties and played all the instruments on the record with the exception of a clarinet solo by Nomo bandmate Elliot Bergman. The self~titled debut was released in spring of 2010. With an album fully materialized, Hall assembled a band to play the tunes out live, enlisting drummer Quin Kirchner and bassist Matt Ulery as full~time members, with occasional auxiliary support from Icy Demons’ Christopher Schreck on keyboards or Michael Tolan on second guitar. The trio of core members embarked on several tours in support of the album, sharing stages with the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Here We Go Magic, and many others. Reaction to the album was strong: it charted on the CMJ Top 200 and earned the band invitations to appear at South by Southwest, Midpoint Music Festival, Tomorrow Never Knows Festival, and 2011’s Toronto International Film Festival. In addition to its time on the road, the band recorded a session for online live performance archive Daytrotter, as well as releasing an extremely limited 7” in conjunction with 2011’s Record Store Day festivities. Over the next three years, Hall worked on recording the second In Tall Buildings album, playing occasional festivals and shows in and around Chicago, including supporting bands such as Tennis and Kishi Bashi. A true solo effort with Hall handling all songwriting, performance, and production duties, Driver was released on Western Vinyl in early 2015. ~ Fred Thomas
Bandcamp: https://intallbuildings.bandcamp.com/album/akinetic
Website: https://www.intallbuildings.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/intallbuildings
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/intallbuildings
Label: http://westernvinyl.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intallbuildings/
Selected Press:
•★•       “The hardest~working man in Chicago prog pop, Erik Hall ... construct[s] intricate home~studio epics that suggest Elliott Smith fronting Midlake, resulting in a deceptively smooth uneasy listening.” — UNCUT
•★•      “The triple~threat talent showcases his facility for melding delightfully anomalous compositions…” — CULTURE COLLIDDE
•★•      “A lovely mid~tempo, melancholy stroll, expertly layered with tambourine, multi~tracked backing vocals and choppy electric guitar. In fact, its sense of building warmth in a cold world might just make it the perfect soundtrack to your snow~soaked mid~week.” — SPIN
•★•      “[Driver] features 10 understated pop songs carefully constructed around guitars, piano, synthesizers and Hall’s riveting, whispery vocals.” — WALL STREET JOURNAL
•★•      “Wide~eyed and instantly likable ... Driver is heavy on melodies and breezy in its effortlessness. It’s the kind of album that moves in different ways during different times and reveals aural layers on multiple listens.” — PASTE
•★•      “Driver...sustains such a steady mood~a hushed intimacy touched with the subtlest edge of melancholy~that it can be easy to overlook the ambitious stylistic hopscotch happening behind it... ‘Unmistakable...’ produc[es] a delicately funky amalgam that sounds a little like Elliott Smith’s Either/Or filtered through Peter Gabriel’s So.” — ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
•★•      “Erik Hall’s music remains impossible to define on ‘Unmistakable,’ but suffice it to say there’s a big~hearted, wistful, deftly arranged metropolitan pop song between that simple bass~kick beat and those mesmerizing keyboard flickers.” — STEREOGUM
•★•      “Equal parts expansive and intimate, anchored by Hall’s mellow tenor and ear for subtle but engaging composition.” — CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND
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In Tall Buildings — Akinetic (March 2, 2018)

ALBUM COVERS XI.