Music of an experimental shade has a special appeal, because it has an inherent possibility of going just about anywhere, of taking any possible road. I like the way experimental music takes my mind to all sorts of places, the way it lets my thoughts meander. These characteristics create a relaxing listening experience even in the face of great complexity. However, this is not the kind of music you can listen to everyday or while doing something else. You need to make room for it, give it your undivided attention, or it will get very annoying very fast. And annoying it absolutely can be, because nowhere is the line between good music and the opposite of it thinner than within the experimental genre.
Australians Tangled Thoughts of Leaving have been navigating these tricky waters successfully for more than 10 years now. Although marketed also as prog and post rock, experimental is definitely the tag that fits their music best most of the time. In their soundscapes, and especially live, chaos rules supreme, and order and boundaries exist only for short, fleeting periods in time.
Deaden the Fields was the band’s debut album and originally released 10 years ago, in 2011. To celebrate that occasion, the band, while working on their fourth full-length, are releasing a reissue, making the album available internationally on CD and vinyl for the first time. Recorded over a three-month period in a self-built studio outside of Perth, Deaden the Fields represents somewhat of a feat, and due to the nature of the music the album still sounds fresh and innovative. It makes sense, therefore, to remind a broader audience and new fans of its existence. And should the production of the new album take more time than planned, this is a way for the band to stay part of the conversation.
The album opens with Landmarks, the first of six tracks. Music akin to lounge jazz fills the room and your eardrums with fluid, flowing sound, calling to mind jazz bars in big cities equipped with artsy furniture. With a playtime of 17 minutes, this is already a monster of a track and will need multiple listens to grasp fully. The piano dominates the first track and the album with the drums as its steady companion. The changes of soundscape and atmosphere are realized primarily through other instruments and sounds, while these two create the main current. From the very beginning, the jazzy playfulness and easiness is disturbed by electronic, programmed sounds in the form of buzzing, trilling, firing sounds and other sound effects that you might encounter in video games.
Though of a chaotic and seemingly random character, the album’s soundscapes feature continuous changes of atmosphere. A dangerous, disturbing element enters the scene with Throw us to the Wind, deepening the chaos. You can hear time ticking away on Sever us from the Present while the scene simultaneously gains on drama and pomp. Rock, that is a sound heavy on guitar, doesn’t enter the picture until track no. 4, Deep Rivers Run Quiet. And when it does it is of a bluesy, jazzy kind, a la Jimi Hendrix.
With a runtime of over an hour Deaden the Fields does ask a lot from the listener and I found my patience and concentration repeatedly dropping towards the end. Which does in no way mean that the last two tracks are less intriguing than the first four, only that in order to enjoy the whole of the album you might want to take a break midway through. But despite being rather long, this is a sophisticated piece of music that is worth being brought once again to the attention of the music-loving public. Since the music it offers is of an instrumental and complex kind, you will be able to revisit it many times and it will still sound new.
(8/10 Slavica)
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