Customer Reviews

Manifest

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A smattering of electronics meets a healthy dose of post-rock on Chessie's fourth album, MANIFEST. Though the opening track, "Take the Lark" is all electronic, the guitar fuzz comes in heavily on "Intercity" and "Long Bridge." High-pitched squeals interrupt the measured tones of "High Line," but overall, most of the tracks have a delicate sensibility and a soft, gossamer construction. For example, a lonely train serves as percussion for the spare "CP Azure," while "Magnolia Cutoff" almost sounds like a lost Postal Service track. A train-like rhythm re-emerges in "Alphabet Route," but "Hoosac" rides out the rails on waves of sound. A nice soundtrack for your next Amtrak ride.

I am just blown away by the music on this album. It's great driving music. It's great walking music. It's great train music. It's just great music. Listen for yourself - but don't judge right away - give it time. This isn't immediately accessible music. It is totally instrumental abstract sonic art. These aren't pop tunes that catch you right off and then leave you bored down the road; they are the opposite. These songs get under your skin over time and become a subconscious soundtrack to your dreams. I give this album my highest recommendation.

There is a complex fusion of sounds in Chessie's music - textures are looped and layered in an increasingly intricate way in each song. The sounds are superb: some abstract and electronic, some familiar and musical. The textures are all over the sonic map: pretty, ugly, yearning, harsh. Sometimes the music is mellow and hypnotic; sometimes it's melodic; sometimes abstract and mechanical. The sounds of trains and train yards are recurring themes. Sometimes I think I hear Chinese melodies. The songs loop recurrently, gradually evolving, in a way that reminds me of African music. Sometimes there's a break and a song becomes wildly different. This is very interesting stuff.

Chessie's music has evolved in incremental - but really great ways since 'Overnight". This is the same kind of hypnotic electronica - loops and layers that grow and gradually change in ways that are subtle and strangely moving. Abstract and yet emotionally resonant - where does this power come from? I have this experience sometimes with modern visual art - something abstract is powerful emotionally paradoxically. In my view that's a very neat trick and what art is all about. 'Overnight' was an incredible album. In 'Manifest' Chessie has taken that goodness and stepped it up several major notches. Chessie has built upon their stylistic strengths and have made their compositions more complex and more varied (both from song to song, and also within songs). The instrumentation is more sophisticated and even more beautiful. There are tracks on 'Manifest' that drive you out of your seat and make you dance. That's new for me with Chessie. The range of emotions elicited are also varied. Joy, fear, groove - moving from a moment of anxiety to just rocking out - it's amazing how this stuff makes you FEEL.

Be aware that the short clips provided here on Amazon might give you a little taste - but can't do these songs justice either from the perspective of fidelity or length. These songs slowly evolve over time and part of the art is how they've changed while you were looking out the window. Check out Plug Research's site for longer clips. Someone asked me for a broader cultural metaphor. Chessie's music is unique - but the work of Fripp and Eno comes to my mind (except Chessie's central metaphor is TRAINS), as well as the band Tortoise. Really good. Check it out.