Rare Forms by Woodsman
LABEL: Lefse / Fire Talk • RELEASE: January 25, 2011
When I first started writing for Groovemine over a year ago, one of the first records I was sent to review was a title by Grave With No Name. I recall, distinctly, sitting in front of my computer with my headphones on, jaw a little slack, thinking “what…the…hell is this?” That turned into a good thing during the second listen. As my first year of writing for the site winds down, I’m confronted with a similar marvel in Rare Forms by Woodsman. It’s drenched in reverb, sporadic, temperamental, and so easy to get lost in that you just welcome it all in with open…ears.
“Rare Forms is going to be something truly special given to us at the beginning of the year.”
Woodsman smatters the styles about as liberally as they do the echo and reverb. There’s a lot of indie garage rock, but without being some saccharine folk imitation, and a lot of noise/post-rock experimentalism encased in a loose songwriting package. There’s a lot of noise, but a lot of musicality as well. It’s a new wave of musicians that don’t feel at home in any of the contemporary styles, so they’re making their own path by coloring the picture with all the hues available. This might end up a garbled mess, but Woodsman keep it tight enough not to leave the listener stranded.
Guitars play equal parts as melody-makers and ambient drone machines. The vocals are sparse and heavily processed, drawing up the ‘throat-as-instrument’ styles of the early shoegaze acts. Intensity is traded (mostly) for mellowness and restrained, hazy beauty, “Insects” and “Inside/Outside” blast through with almost unbearable ruthlessness (in a pretty way). The group occasionally dips into dissonant territory, such as on “Burial Ground” and “Unnamed 3,” only further blurring their direction and keeping things from becoming too monotonous and dreamy.
Its seeming lack of coherence and difficulty in classification will make this album a hard one to get across to a lot of listeners. This is a shame, really, because Rare Forms is going to be something truly special given to us at the beginning of the year. Woodsman are almost over-extending themselves with this release, but at the same time carving out a whole new direction to take the typical organic band setup. It’s charming, down-to-earth, and truly different music for burnouts from the over-saturated indie scene.
REVIEWED BY NEIL LEVENS
NEIL’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Insects” • “Inside/Outside” • “Unnamed 10”
FREE MP3: “Insects”
