Rating: 8.5 / Label: Thrill Jockey
To paraphrase one of my favourite opening lines to a review (Simon Hampson’s review of Optimo’s Sleepwalk): what a lovely record this is. Records like Choral, Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, aka Mountains’, third full-length don’t come along too often.
Much has been made of Thrill Jockey’s recent form – how the exciting stuff is from the non-traditional Thrill Jockey acts (Fiery Furnaces, High Places, Double Dagger et al), but Choral quite reassuringly proves that there’s still some life left in good old nicety. Of course, there’s a lot more to Choral than recent, rather mild records by Tortoise and the Sea and Cake; maybe that’s due to the band originating from the constantly rewarding creative fountain that is Brooklyn, and cutting their teeth at the Chicago School of the Art Institute. Maybe it’s not. But there’s definitely something of a Brooklyn-Chicago middle ground about Choral – a lushly inventive hinterland where the drones of Psychic Ills and improv hypnosis of Gang Gang Dance meet the twinkling post-rock of the Chicago vanguard.
But really, there’s all sorts here. Fennesz, Helios, the instrumental passages of Six Organs of Admittance and Amandine, even Orphaned Land; all are recalled here in droves. If there’s one criticism you could make of Choral it’s that it reminds you of so much great music that there’s no defined Mountains sound to it. But that’s a small price to pay for a record that’s not just rich in texture and beauty, but one that’s constantly revealing itself, changing direction, never resting on its laurels and never content to just be lovely. You could call something this slow-paced glacial, but really, no ice could ever grow on such a natural successor to Endless Summer.
Tom Lea