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Release Info :
Full release of an album that has been subject to overwhelming praise
worldwide as a result of the initial pressing on the band's own label
last year.
Within the seven tracks of sprawling, intelligent, complex, emotive and
thoroughly engaging post-rock totalling over an hour minutes on
"Storyboard", the band have produced a staggering debut album,
with a widescreen, epic and ultimately very powerful end product that
belies their inexperience - the strength being the sensational interplay
between the guitars, layered over the drums, with occasional appearances
from the xylophone and even a typewriter.
That said, the term 'post-rock' does the band a disservice, as they
avoid many of the cliches associated with purveyors of the style and
instead display an ability to compose 'songs' that unravel over time
while never needing to resort to distortion or the quiet/loud stereotype
often employed. The album is self-produced, and was recorded in the
library of a primary school.
This Is Your Captain Speaking are a three-piece that hail from
Melbourne, Australia, and this first opus promises a great deal. Reviews
for the album have been exceptional - see quotes below - with
comparisons drawn to the likes of Tortoise, The Necks, Silver Ray and
Dirty Three.
Limited to 1000 copies, beautifully packaged in a high-quality card
digipack with a twelve-page booklet.
Tracklisting:
1. Gathering Pieces
2. 6pm
3. A Wave To Bridget Fondly
4. Weathered
5. Lift
6. Henry & Maximus
7. Angels
Biog :
From Melbourne, Australia, instrumentalists This is Your Captain
Speaking released their debut album ‘Storyboard’ in May 2005. The
album has already earnt critical acclaim internationally, with critics
as far afield as Belgium, the US, Poland and Bosnia declaring the album
“66 minutes of pure musical bliss”, “one of the most well crafted
albums in recent history” and “a masterpiece in its own right”.
18-minute opening track Gathering Pieces has been described as “the
composition of which Godspeed You Black Emperor was never able”.
Reviewers have consistently compared the band to the likes of Brian Eno,
Steve Reich, Terry Riley, The Necks, Sigur Rós, Explosions in the Sky
and Ennio Morricone. This is Your Captain Speaking has also garnered a
dedicated following at their live shows, and if you walked in on a
performance more often than not you will see a silent room focussed
intently on the band.
Seven tracks and 66 minutes, Storyboard was recorded live in a primary
school library and captures This is Your Captain Speaking’s
extraordinary ability to evoke atmosphere and emotion. Moving from
minimal ambience and beautiful intertwining melodies to soaring sonic
reverberations, moments of country & western and psychedelia,
Storyboard captures This is Your Captain Speaking’s highly original
and fluid sound.
PRICE / COST
(UK) CD £9.99 -
Including standard first class postage
(Europe) CD £10.99
- Including standard airmail postage
(Rest Of World) CD
£11.99 - Including standard airmail postage
Reviews :
It's funny how things
come around, post rock has been out of favour for a while now, but what
with a new album from Mogwai this week, Sickoakes making their debut in
a couple of weeks and new albums due from Explosions in the Sky and
Tarentel and now this little gem from the horribly named 'This is Your
Captain Speaking' maybe 2006 is the year where it all becomes cool
again. This debut release from TiYCS on the lovely Resonant label is as
epic as you'd expect from the genre - all glorious wisps of e-bowed
guitar and rhythmic tom-bashing straight from the annals of the outback.
Imagine if Godspeed had a brighter outlook on life; if they looked out
over Montreal on a Monday morning and saw green grass instead of BLACK
BLAAACK BLAAAAACK. TiYCS, as if you wouldn't have guessed from the twee
name have a fun side, it's not all tearful drones and misplaced
aspirations - but then they're from Australia, it's warm and you can go
down the street and play football with Kangaroos while Joe Mangle cooks
you another shrimp on the Barbie - right? A very promising debut. BOOMKAT
How apropos that the
debut album by Melbourne, Australia's This Is Your Captain Speaking was
recorded in the library of a primary school, given the degree to which
the trio generally opts for unhurried restraint instead of the genre's
stereotypical soft-loud dynamic. In the opening “Gathering Pieces,”
for example, the band eschews bombast for elegance with the focus on the
chiming guitar lattices Nick Lane and Aaron Trimmer weave throughout its
eighteen-minute duration. Oh sure, the album includes its share of epics
but they're so labeled more because of duration than anything else
(though “Lift” does rise to an anthemic roar). Mention should also
be made of David Evans who provides tasteful drum support but also
brightens the mood with an occasional metallophone tinkle and, yes,
typewriter (“6pm,” “Angels”). References to kindred spirits like
Mogwai and Godspeed are as inevitable as they are unavoidable but TSYCS
casts its own atmospheric spell, so to speak, especially when guitars
bring a hymnal quality to “6pm” and build to a blissful crescendo in
“A Wave To Bridget Fondly.” You'll remember Storyboard most of all,
though, for the suppleness of its intertwining guitar melodies and the
group's confident handling of its material. TEXTURA
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