Artist : KEPLER
Title : Missionless Days
Cat# RESCD002

Format : CD Album Jewel Case
Label : Resonant
Barcode # 0666017031927

Release Info :

Brand new album from Canada's premier exponents of 'slocore', almost exactly a year since the acclaimed debut "Fuck Fight Fail".

"Missionless Days" is a superb second album, expanding on the lo-fi sound of the debut which saw parallels drawn to Red House Painters, Codeine and Low, and introducing a fuller, more accomplished feel which sees the band in a comparatively upbeat mood, while retaining the fragility that was so appealing and endearing with "Fuck Fight Fail". The album illustrates how far Kepler have come as a band, and along with the tour marks them out as an act to watch.

Released to coincide with the bands first ever UK/Ireland tour with fellow countrymen GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR!

Tour takes in Brighton (16/3), London (Hackney Ocean - 18th), Birmingham (20th), Dublin (22nd), Belfast (23rd), Glasgow (24th), Bradford (26th) and Newcastle (27th).

The band also play select intimate headline shows in Oxford (19th) and Leeds (25th). Kepler's live dates continue throughout Europe in April.

Tracklisting :

1. I'm A Parade
2. A Workhorse
3. Our Little Museum
4. Dogs And Madmen
5. An Elegant Game
6. Salvation
7. Let Us Rest As Mutes
8. The Steel And The Stone
9. Vociferous Designs
10. Elemental: Blood Or Water

Reviews :

Then there are the moments where a few different feelings tug at you simultaneously, and you feel uncertain and confused. This discordant state is at the heart of these Kepler songs. Ottawa's slowcore maestros, who opened for Godspeed You Black Emperor! on a European tour earlier this year, find that kernel of doubt in the happy moment and the edge of comfort in sadness, and blow the swirling mess up to billboard size. These songs are brimming with such internal conflict.

"Let Us Rest as Mutes" has the kind of songwriting focus I'm talking about. It's a weary plea for sleep addressed to the girl at the narrator's side, begging her not to pay attention to his bitchy quips: "Darling, I implore you to ignore my foolish taunts," he sings. "The words I speak are nothing but decoration for my wrongs." Anyone who's ever launched into a stupid fight at 1:00am can relate to the closing line, "Tonight I'm begging, baby, let us rest as fucking mutes for one last time." The very spare and Low-like "A Workhorse," is another lament for rest, with nuggets of surreal detail like, "Walking up my street, I catch the 22-hour nightspot on siesta: waitresses asleep on tables and floors."

On Missionless Days, Kepler sounds paradoxically both more careful and more confident. The melodies and arrangements are meticulously constructed, with instrumental touches like piano and organ now fully integrated into the two-guitar/bass/drum sound-- yet they never sound fussy, and the songs seem to fall in place naturally. Kepler's secret weapon is John Higney, who contributes gorgeous lap steel to a handful of tracks, lending an airy, high lonesome sound to Missionless Days. The record breathes. Esteemed Pitchfork editor Ryan Schreiber concluded his review of Kepler's last effort on Troubleman Unlimited Fuck Fight Fail by saying, "...the boys have got promise, and their next album will likely shock this one into submission." He was on the money. PITCHFORK

Music reviewing is a funny thing. Any art, if it is of any worth, should have a polarizing effect on people, causing an amount of subjective emotion. Music is one of these artistic ventures that causes such conflict among people. But reviewing is meant to be an objective analysis of the work. A way to break down the influences, the sounds, and the meaning of the art presented. Most music reviews, and specifically this one, also have a rating attached to them- a numerical attempt to define exactly how good the work is, in comparison to everything else that has been released. A great reviewer of albums should be able to put any album in a range of 20% either way, to encompass exactly how good an album is- and how well loved it will become. But sometimes there are problems. These problems occur for me, specifically, when an album comes along that I know perhaps isn’t the pinnacle of musical achievement, but I certainly can’t stop listening to- whatever the reason.

Unfortunately for the reader and fortunately for me, one of these albums is Kepler’s Missionless Days. The excitement, of course, stems from my uncommon love of the debut record of the group, Fuck Fight Fail, but Missionless Days is on a road to even trumping this release in its appearances on my Winamp playlist.

That being said, Missionless Days is a distinct progression from the spare slo-core of Fuck Fight Fail. Whereas the debut record featured a minimum of instruments on each song, it seemed, Missionless Days opts for a fuller mix of two guitars, drums, and bass- and frequently more. Samir Khan takes more of the singing duties here, although the two singers sound so much alike that it nearly makes no difference. Perhpas influenced by Khan’s love of Will Oldham, the group incorporates a bit more country twang into the proceedings this time around. A slide guitar is used on some of the tracks, while the songs maintain a definite tone of melancholy and sadness.

The most potent emotional points on the debut album, the epic “Upper Canada Fight Song” and “The Changing Light at Sandover” are not equaled in intensity, however; as Kepler trades in the Mogwai-esque explosions of sound for a more deliberate and tempered approach. The emotion is still there, it just isn’t as self consciously shown as before in the well timed, almost clichéd crescendos of their first effort.

The results are, in the end, less immediate and altogether more satisfying. The pacing of the album is once again immaculate and allows for two of the most up tempo Kepler songs in memory- “Dogs and Madmen” and “The Steel and the Stone”. While this may not be the perfect release for everyone, if you find yourself wishing that Will Oldham, Low, or the Red House Painters had another album out Kepler might just be the band that you’re looking for. I feel lucky that I’ve already found them. STYLUS MAGAZINE

Kepler's Missionless Days is a dusky, slow-simmering album, with gleams that show through the haze as plucked guitar or the fading voice of a lap steel. Like the silhouetted image of its cover, this is music for houses under red skies, sung by bleary-eyed young men as an alternative to screaming... it's big electric guitars with the amps turned right down, the strong-shouldered drummer with brushes in his hands. Its songs are slow and fuzzy, but where the glimmers show through - the sea-warmth and star-glitter of "Our Little Museum", the sleepy guitar swell on "Vociferous Designs" - there's a clarity far more subtle than that of Low's vocal harmonies or the Red House Painters' whine.

Samir Khan and Jon Georgekish-Watt trade singing duties, with supporting vocals from a handful of other players. Meanwhile, guitar, kit, bass... the regular rock lineup gets together and waits for fireworks. "Dogs and Madmen" is the trotting, upbeat song for en route; "oh now, I must be getting on / ... though I smile in silly glee / I'm not made of stone," sings Khan over a confident, striding rhythm section. There's an easy affinity between the members of the four-piece, a familiarity of tone and colour. As the slow-revealing "An Elegant Game" blossoms out of voice and piano, there's the intimacy of firelight. On Kepler's past record, 2000's Fuck, Fight, Fail, it was the band's quietest moments that fastest bored - and consequently, much of the album was a slog. There, the standout was the instrumental surge of volume in "The Changing Light at Dawn", where a climax of noise, fuzz and melody knocked clouds and sun clear out of the sky. On Missionless Days however, Kepler seems to have overcome its initial failings, and David Draves has recorded a record whose restful moments stay powerful, the silences between guitar-notes and snare-beats like the pauses in breath between lovers' whispers.

And then at the close of the album, in the slow-but-ever-rising "Elemental: Blood or Water", we even get a peppery echo of "The Changing Light at Dawn"... feedback hisses out from the walls, drums stagger up the stairs, and there's volume, passion, the rush of air from an open mouth, the black noise of closed eyes.

There are moments when the empty room music becomes a little too much - Georgekish-Watt's solo voice at the quiet opening of "Elemental: Blood or Water" strains under the weight of his own melancholy - but the band emerges every time with a flicker of sound, a shift of atmosphere that rescues the listener before they can cry for help. Kepler's lyrics have been stripped like wood, knots and sinewy bends atop the bare, blanched board. There are snatches of Rembrandt-hued images here: "I am the steel I am the stone / stilts on a flooding plain / and I don't believe that I will stand / after tomorrow's rain." ("The Steel and the Stone"); "drink up, drink up / tonight your soul may be required" ("Salvation"); "waitresses asleep on tables and floors" ("A Workhorse").

Although Missionless Days lacks the vivacity to hit it out of the park, the album is an awesome step forward for Kepler, and there is enough beauty, sound and poetry here that a touch more of the avant-garde -- a stepping-out from the lit circle of the known -- would bring with it, I think, a masterwork. TANGMONKEY

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