Customer Reviews

Bowery Electric

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dark, repetitive, and utterly hypnotic, Bowery Electric's first album recalls classic noise-rock from the likes of Loop, My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive. While BE's latter-day records pushed into techno/trip-hop territory, this CD has a more traditional rock approach. Although the droning guitars, slow tempos, and barely audible vocals create a somewhat joyless but relaxing atmosphere, I didn't find much substantive material here. There are only faint traces of rhythmic and melodic variation between the songs, and even after several listenings, many tracks are just indistinguishable from each other. Also, this album hasn't much of the pop sensibilities of "Beat" or "Lushlife", and it's more notable for its production than the songwriting. My favorite pieces here are "Next to nothing", "Another road", and the drumless "Over and over". The rest isn't bad by any means, it's just that it's always the same style. It's worth a listen, but Bowery Electric would outdo themselves with their next album, the fantastic "Beat".

I'm generally not a rock fan - my tastes lean more toward ambient and electronic - but there are a few rock bands who know how to tickle my eardrums in the right places, and Bowery Electric is the latest addition to that list. This album falls squarely in the drone rock genre; pretty much every song consists of a sustained, fuzzed-out guitar drone, augmented by spare basslines, subdued vocals, and nimble but relaxed beats. The effect is earthy, calming and a bit dissociative.

I tend to associate different CDs with different seasons, based on their mood, and this is definitely an "autumn" album: there's a nascent chill in the air, but there's still enough sunlight dancing between the leaves to warm your skin; there's a whiff of wood smoke in the air, and the fading summer seems all the more precious with the realization that it will soon be over. There's also a compelling virility to the insistent guitar drone, putting the "rock" into the drone rock.

I understand that their later work is rather different, but if you like droned-out shoegazer rock, you'll definitely dig this.

The cover artwork is culled from the famous PC adventure game "Riven". Musically, this is Bowery's most consistent and enjoyable album. If you like this kind of music, check out releases from Labradford, Seefeel, Main and Durutti Column.

Other reviewers have described this masterpiece as "soft" and "ethereal." Their volume controls must be stuck on -1. Bowery Electric s.t starts out with a blistering wall of intense, squalling guitar noise and ends in the exact same way, with lots more in the middle. It's mixed way down low, the drums are thin and lacking in impact, tempo's are universally slow, and the vocals are barely audible. But who cares: if you like droning, Flying Saucer Attack style, noise-based shoegaze (unlike the more pop-ish Boo Radleys, the lush MBV, the jangly Ride, the lovely Slowdive, the crunchy Swervedriver or the gentle Telescopes) this will hit you like a ton of bricks. Not for everyone, but for those who appreciate blissed-out noise, there isn't much out there that's better than this. BTW, totally unlike the (also fantastic) trip-hopped out Lushlife.

No summative assessment of Bowery Electric's eponymous debut should be considered complete without referencing how integral the massive, cascading, guitar-driven drone is to the construction of the tracks on this release; the circular directionality created by the over-layering of delay, phase, echo, and heavy distortion give the sound a quality of having been sucked into a vortex where the granularity of the distortion approaches the aural equivalent of particulates being levitated and stretched out in a rhythmic, infinite fashion within the confines of a strong centrifugal force, functioning like an event horizon on an auditory level.

And I'm not certain whether some of what Bowery Electric has recorded here could be properly termed as songs; they're more like soundscapes that convey a spectral presence from deep within the recesses of their own aural universe where there seem to be a minute number of fixed dimensions, such as "Sounds In Motion", "Over and Over" , and Drift Away". And even tracks that retain some of the universal features that conventional songs are structured around, like "Next To Nothing", "Long Way Down", "Deep Sky Objects", and "Slow Thrills" deconstruct those elements with the result that they sound more cyclonic than instrumental in origination and composition, even with a heavily resonant bassline and rudimentary, propulsive percussion ostensibly anchoring these cuts. Vocals are barely audible, recorded so low within the mix that they become just another extension of the instrumentation.

Nevertheless, there's a definite movement and a fluid progression that can be discerned within these tracks, even if the pace is accretive or incremental. The overwhelming viscerality alone makes "Bowery Electric" a compelling listen, even without the shifts in dynamic. Recommended.

for a debut, this is borderline masterwork. the mood, the atmosphere, the sound....Bowery Electric hits it dead-on. their choice of Studio 45 and Mike Deming as engineer/producer is great. Mike is an old friend, and a champion of quality analog studio methods. it shows here. a great pairing.

not only are the individual songs great, but the CD flows well as an entity. from the swirling, lush sounds of the opening tracks, to the climatic power of "Deep Sky Objects" and into the musical denoument, the Bowery Electricians (sorry, poor pun) pull you along on trip through an interstellar Tunnel Of Love.

ladies and gentlemen, if you look to your left you'll see an up close view of the Pleiades cluster. please return your snack trays to the upright position, we are ready for overdrive....

This CD is one of the best that kranky records has put out. I definately reccommend this album to everyone that enjoys ethereal soundscapes.

music to mellow out to