Okay I don’t know what type of vinyl this is pressed on and it looks great, but man does it ever play weird. When I first put it on it did this weird warping thing, then it sort of wouldn’t catch and then finally it played. But it does look nice it’s this like pristine, virginal white and I think it might be intended to have that effect of the purity of the record for the sound. Or maybe I just want it to be for that purpose as that would explain why the record is screwy, and not just be lousy pressing. And the 3 sided thing is pretty bizarre too, not even breaking the tracks up just one totally empty side. WEIRD.
Anyway when I finally got it to play I was pleasantly serenaded with some sort of post-rock chamber -pop. Okay I don’t know if that means anything, but that’s what it made me think of. Anyway I am Your Bastard Wings is a fairly strong debut from Eksi Ekso.
It begins with a decent mellow jazzy track and not mellow as in that super soft jazz-lite but just a mellow sort of good loungey vibe. Musically sounds a little Tindersticks-esque, not at all in the vocals but yeah that would be a good reference point. Though I may just have that in my head because I saw them the other night and it was pretty jazzy. A bit too subdued a performance for my taste but defiantly jazzy and mellow.
But yeah Eksi Ekso, maybe think like that and then think post-rock. There is some very nice playing on here form a wide range of instruments which keeps things fresh and interesting. Good music to file taxes to that’s what I think. The following track maintains a similar vibe and instrumentation though adds a bit more of a straight ahead rock beat, and vocals to match.
Kind of interesting, because it maintains this mellow jazzy feel, while sort of rocking out. Well okay not rocking out, but more so than is usual with this type of music. Strong playing from the string section that builds and builds into a crescendo then falls back away to a more slow, soft vibe, with some sort of militant style playing. Only to build again.
And the album pretty much continues in this vein, at times incredibly mellow and orchestral and at others very rocking and exciting. Sometimes soft whispered vocals at others fairly typical indie-rock and raspy. So yeah to say a bit uneven would probably be an understatement. Though not necessarily in a bad way, just a bit all over the place. Keeps you interested and listening okay.
The second side is a pit more straight forward post-rock, umm can I say that? Well I just did so yeah, pretty much by the numbers long drawn out ambient type tracks. Still in the same vein though. And the third seems to be the most typically song structured out of the lot. I suppose this is why they did the 3 sided thing lump the songs together that work together kind of deal, right? I guess so…I guess so.
The third side I found the least interesting, but hell that might just be because the rest of it was pretty great, and it has probably the weakest songs. So yeah there you go.
Anyway it all maintains that sort of loungey jazzy vibe, with degrees of rock and pop structures to it. Overall pretty stronger debut. I guess we’ll have to wait for more releases to see what direction they end up going in, if any.
