A pre-edit version of what appeared in today's Clevescene:
Emeralds
What Happened
(No Fun)
Titling your debut album Bullshit Boring Drone Band is a bit of a gamble for a young underground outfit; there's the inherent danger of self-fulfilling prophecy, of handing lazy critics the rope with which to hang you. Happily, Cleveland's Emeralds are gifted enough to play that kind of risque self-labeling off as tongue-in-cheekiness. Early discs like 07's Solar Bridge revealed the trio to be heirs apparent to dimension-surfing krautrock acts like Cluster, thickening Brian Eno-esque ambience into a subtly psychedelic paste. What Happened builds up from that trippy template, stirring in elements of noise and discord with face-melting results. "Alive in the Sea of Information" plays host to insiduous synth-on-synth violence, as razor-toothed Parkinsons' loops nip haphazardly at the heels of starry-eyed, drippy-bass, and fantasticly flatulent drones alike. "Up in the Air" is something of a tonal way station, with thermal updrafts, thumping pulsations, and rippling sonic mirages intersecting briefly before vanishing into the ether, then - eventually - gliding back. After opening as a tentative organ meditation, "Living Room" morphs into a woozy primordial ooze: the introduction of a plaintive guitar exoskeleton provides a structure to which electronic twitters and squiggles can be affixed en route to the blaring, black-metal denouement that's stealthly foreshadowed. And just to prove to us - and perhaps themselves - that they're not taking this space-rock stuff too seriously, hints of "London Bridge Is Falling Down" crop up intermittently in Emeralds' sublime pea soup.
Emeralds
What Happened
(No Fun)
Titling your debut album Bullshit Boring Drone Band is a bit of a gamble for a young underground outfit; there's the inherent danger of self-fulfilling prophecy, of handing lazy critics the rope with which to hang you. Happily, Cleveland's Emeralds are gifted enough to play that kind of risque self-labeling off as tongue-in-cheekiness. Early discs like 07's Solar Bridge revealed the trio to be heirs apparent to dimension-surfing krautrock acts like Cluster, thickening Brian Eno-esque ambience into a subtly psychedelic paste. What Happened builds up from that trippy template, stirring in elements of noise and discord with face-melting results. "Alive in the Sea of Information" plays host to insiduous synth-on-synth violence, as razor-toothed Parkinsons' loops nip haphazardly at the heels of starry-eyed, drippy-bass, and fantasticly flatulent drones alike. "Up in the Air" is something of a tonal way station, with thermal updrafts, thumping pulsations, and rippling sonic mirages intersecting briefly before vanishing into the ether, then - eventually - gliding back. After opening as a tentative organ meditation, "Living Room" morphs into a woozy primordial ooze: the introduction of a plaintive guitar exoskeleton provides a structure to which electronic twitters and squiggles can be affixed en route to the blaring, black-metal denouement that's stealthly foreshadowed. And just to prove to us - and perhaps themselves - that they're not taking this space-rock stuff too seriously, hints of "London Bridge Is Falling Down" crop up intermittently in Emeralds' sublime pea soup.
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