Unrefined Style Gets Classy Sound

Organic seems to be the craze these days.  I personally don’t mind consuming bananas being sprayed with pesticide. Milk is so damn refined in the process that if they feed a cow hormone, I don’t taste the difference. Although, my wife would be quick to point out that it’s better for the environment, not just me necessarily.  Now it’s infected my music in the form of Brooklyn based Slow Six’s sophomore effort Nor’Easter; an unrefined post rock instrumental mesh that is as classically rooted as it is deep.

Whether it is the swelling opener ‘The Pulse of the Skyline With Lightning Like Nerves’ with haunting violins or the piano strained soft beauty of ‘Contemplation and Dissolution of An Idea for Two Pairs’, the album never strays from its well orchestrated algorithms and clever samples created at the hands of Christopher Tignor. Songs dance in and out of subdued moments to buoyant flights much like a low key version of Explosions in the Sky. But where as the 2004 debut Private Times in Public Places was more naïve and flighty, Nor’Easter restructures the composition to mature the sound. It can be a bit overbearing band juggles classical thinking with post rock experimentation abrasively. Often times Tignor gets too wrapped up in his creation that he doesn’t notice the monster he’s created.  Over sampling and lack of simplicity may the downfall for tracks like ‘Hold Fast’ but they are few and far between and thankfully brief. 

The album’s general appeal is its greatest asset; both atmospheric modern music lovers and classical composure folk can find solace under its wings. Nor’Easter is a shining example of patience and purity in sound; a natural feeling in a synth’ed industry as of late. Just don’t expect it to divulge more than such.

Sean Kendall