Oslo Novelist – Grand Archives
Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows all about my feeling regarding Mat Brooke. Carissa’s Wierd is, in my opinion, the great unrecognized jewel of this decade. Probably my favorite band of the decade (the only real competition being Okkervil River) despite breaking up all the way back in 2003. And his new work with Grand Archives doesn’t strike right to my core in the manner of Carissa’s Wierd, but I’m pretty much always going to be excited to hear new stuff from one of my favorite artists.
The new record Keep In Mind Frankenstein is no exception to that rule. It’s the logical successor to their debut record last year. If that one conveyed a sense of looseness – the joy of making music for fun – this one takes that to an even greater extreme. Both darker and more buoyant (sometimes simultaneously) this one is a free-flowing affair. The atmosphere is moody, but never fearful, and the sound never strays far from the organic sound of a band practing in a barn. Not surprising, given that most of these songs were written, practiced, and recorded over the course of only a few days. At times you can’t help but wish they had spent a bit more time perfecting the craft, but you also can’t deny the vitality.
This haphazard construction does mean that some songs appear more as the kernels of ideas than they do as the fully realized finished versions. Album opener “Topsy’s Revenge,” for example, has a wonderful woozy feel to it, but also only really has enough variation to last a minute or two. The second track “Witchy Park/Tomorrow Will (Take Care of Itself)” maintains a bit of this languid attitude, at least over it’s first half. The pace picks up, but it remains wholly self-contained. It’s not until about four and a half minutes in that the constraints are shucked off and you see just how much was buried underneath.
And from that point on, things are off to the races. The next two tracks are easily the high point of the record: offering a good example of everything at their disposal. If the first two tracks held a bit too much restraint, then “Silver Among the Gold” sets it all free and watches the sounds spiral off into a unbounded distance. It holds onto the same general format of long buildups to big exposition that Mat Brooke has always been fond of. But here it’s not a matter of slow and quiet presaging a huge mopey climax. It’s something that starts out fast and absolutely refuses to let up. By the time the last minute hits, you’re just trying to hold onto the pace and passion.
Then follows “Oslo Novelist,” one of the most beautiful and understated songs I’ve heard this year. The pedal steel guitar manages to hold together the feeling of a windswept Scandinavian plain and the emotion of the old American West. Think Mojave 3 at their best, or even Sweethearts of the Rodeo. This is a song too beautiful to be contained.
They never scale back to the heights of these two tracks, but there’s still plenty to love on the rest of the record. “Left for All the Strays” features a harmonica riff right out of Nebraska-era Springsteen and a melody that almost calls to mind an old Cat Stevens record. Meanwhile, “Dig That Crazy Grave” dances around you with a lightness of step and pureness of heart. And “Siren Echo Valley (Part 1)” is one long breath being slowly exhaled, while it’s counterpart “Siren Echo Valley (Part 2)” is a whirling dervish of a waltz: thick, substantial and effortlessly lurching.
It’s probably my least favorite record of the Mat Brooke catalog, but that’s like saying Beatles for Sale is the weakest Beatles album or calling The Horse and His Boy the worst Narnia book. It’s a friend you didn’t realize you had, the ghost of a time you can’t quite remember but feel deep inside yourself.
If you’re in Seattle, go check out their album release tomorrow at the Sonic Boom on Capitol Hill. If you’re anywhere else, check their tour page to see if they’re coming near you.