Debridement

Rivulets | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 4, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chairkickers Music
• ASIN: B00008DKCL
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,711 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Mojo, 2003

Four stars! ...may occasionally make Nick Drake sound full o' beans, but their forlorn, otherworldly beauty is seldom less captivating.

dB Magazine, 2003

Debridement is already a shoe-in for best release of 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars title of review, June 10, 2004

By 

pancake_repairman "pancake_repairman" (gfjdhgfjhgj) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Debridement (Audio CD)

This album is so lo-fi, has so much atmosphere, and is so amazingly beautiful. It makes you feel like you're sitting in the ballroom of a delapidated, rickety old haunted mansion, while these sounds, guitar, voice, and piano, float out of the upstairs bedrooms like smoke, and converge in a swirling vortex in the air above you. Listening to this record is a magical experience.

4.0 out of 5 stars Stylus Magazine review - 8.0, June 13, 2003

By 

Gentry (Bloomington, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Debridement (Audio CD)

Music often revolves around two poles: artists that use their platform for self-confession and musicians that feel the need to hide their emotions behind layers of allegory and symbolism. Lately, because of the inevitable backlash against the emo genre, honesty is a rare treat in a musical scene saturated with faux-riffs and pseudo-rhymes; and even when an artist advertently makes an effort to bare his insides, it often comes off contrived. Few artists are able (and willing) to present a recording as earnestly guileless as Debridment.

Nathan Amundson's sole band proprietorship, Rivulets, is essentially a means for catharsis. Each track on Debridment began as a "humble voice-and-guitar" piece and was then made over with the assistance of Nathan's close musical friends--from Jessica Bailiff to Jon Derosa and Brian John Mitchell--the latter two also contributing to The Alcohol EPs with Nathan. Most notably, Alan Sparhawk of Low reprises his role at the helm of the mixing board from the debut Rivulets album, and succeeds in maintaining a feeling of intimacy (although I'm sure recording the album in a late 19th century cathedral provided ample inspiration) despite the added instrumentation.

Dedicated to those friends, Debridement opens with a Amundson's chilling a cappella disclosing the ominous line "There's an evil in this room" repeatedly; invoking the malevolent forces and paranoid isolation that pervade the album. Debridement, after all, is the act of excising contaminated or devitalized tissue. "Cutter" contains the most explicit reference to the title with the wry cry of "I brought the blade to my skin"; exemplifying the exhibitionist element that penetrates the work of Rivulets. "Conversation With a Half-Empty Bottle" is Nathan in full inebriation mode, battling alcoholic demons, repeating the leitmotif from The Alcohol EPs. You almost expect to hear him collapse from his chair, a la "Gimme Excess." The motif of addiction appears again on "Shakes", which also contains the first percussion of the album.

The debut, Rivulets, was essentially a sole guitar and ambiance affair--and Alan Sparhawk continues that element. The guitar strumming is kept forward in the mix, with the added instrumentation noticeable, yet unobtrusive. Many of the tracks contain a soft hissing ambiance, the gentle lulling of background traffic, or a creaking chair. "Get Out Alive" epitomizes what critics have deemed Rivulets' style--"underwater folk"--much thanks due to Sparhawk. "Bridges" as well, is hauntingly produced, with echoing footsteps on concrete leading into a wistful organ atmosphere. The former track is an archetypal closer to a squirm-inducing, voyeuristic album. It would be much too simple to write Debridement off as overwrought, solitary grousing, but closer examination reveals a story of the triumph and power of companions in times of dejection.