Given the breadth of contributors, it is difficult to describe the myriad of styles that reform Martin’s work. What makes this record so excellent is the consistency provided by the base that Jeff Martin has constructed. While nearly every track is laden with electronic beats and celestial atmospherics, the meat of the music is rooted in the organic, natural sounds of the acoustic guitar, banjo, piano, mandolin, violin, and cello. Indeed, most of the tracks are instrumental, flowing into the limbo that is post-rock. A few songs include Jeff Martin’s voice which has a surprising smoky quality that contrasts sharply with the velour texture of the music.
The most outstanding track off the Spoons remix record is its first. Shuttlecock is energetic, voluminous, and expansive. It comes to us remixed by Bristol’s Minotaur Shock from 4AD. The song begins with a beautiful interplay of strings and xylophone, which is then mixed with a syncopated acoustic guitar riff, a clarinet, and brass. As Shuttlecock accelerates and builds, it perfectly exemplifies the beauty that electronic/organic fusion achieves; the fast paced beats layer the spaces between the chimes of a dozen other rhythms; it increases in velocity, but remains measured and deliberate. This track is simply ridiculous.
Spoons: RCI has many other gems as well. Strange for a Tuner by Chequerboard is sequenced perfectly. Balancing Act by Decal has a latent retro 80s structure that becomes fully born as the track concludes. Some tracks lack many of the electronic elements that are so prevalent throughout the record. Plays Music by Mice Parade and the impassioned Augustine by the Dublin Guitar Quartet are both gorgeous instrumentals. For those of you who love multi-instrumentalists like Sufjan Stevens and Tortoise, the beats of the Album Leaf, or even if you are a listener of the more ambient songs from God Speed You Black Emperor, Spoons: A Collection of Remixes, Collaborations, and Interpretations is a perfect addition to an ever growing and diversifying, nameless genre that flees moment to moment and movement to movement, renegotiating our expectations of complexity and simplicity, tonal dialectics and the subtlety of repetition.
This remix of Dublin’s own Jeff Martin by the Bristol band Minotaur Shock is freakin’ excellent. The song is called Shuttlecock and will be well received by people into Chicago indie jazz acts like Tortoise, or eclectic instrumentalists like Sufjan Stevens. In fact John McEntire from Tortoise also happens to contribute to the album of Remixes, Collaborations, and Interpretations. This incarnation of Shuttlecock incorporates bells and horns for a multilayered, textural composition, which never sounds cacophonous; although, Minotaur Shock makes clear that chaos could happen at any moment. Minotaur Shock is on 4AD
Jeff Martin is on Casino Gravity Records and a member of the electronic group Halfset. Martin releases a new LP on May 27th and Halfset releases their second album in September. We look forward to reviewing these releases. Heads up, don’t confuse him with the other Jeff Martin from Ireland…the pirate look alike.
The Fiery Furnaces
Widow City
October 9th 2007
Thrill Jockey
Every song on The Fiery Furnaces newest album Widow City is comprised of 45 second snippets of 15 other unpublished Fiery Furnace songs written while flipping between The History Channel and Oxygen. Widow City is a postmodern theater orchestration that can be tedious and exhausting to absorb. Even after the 5th play the record still refuses to present itself as a decent, listenable work. Just when every music loving bone in your body demands that you scrub your hard-drive, smash the disc, and write your senator emphatically instructing her to introduce legislation that would severely damage the First Amendment for all things objectionable and offensive, Widow City suddenly produces what appears to be an amazing 70’s era rock track. It is complex and groovy, imaginative and original, until Eleanor Friedberger switches gears and dribbles out a trite monologue about fuck all, which is then followed by a medley of creative malformations punctuated by boring drum solos.
The Fiery Furnaces want a restorative beer to take their mind off their tears. How great is that…a restorative beer…for their tears. I am reminded of late night channel surfing…while listening to Pippen. Other bands such as The Renfields have a similar style, but succeed where Widow City does not. It is not a matter of accessibility, but rather a matter of sensibility. The Friedbergers have in the past done their work well, but this record is an experiment gone awry. This is not to say that the actual music composed for Widow City isn’t excellent. The parts in themselves are compelling and truly solid. It is when they are assembled that one contemplates murder in the first degree. Philadelphia Grand Jury is a great track and Duplexes of the Dead follows suit. They aren’t exactly cohesive, but at least they function. It is with Automatic Husband that Widow City descends into furthest depths of schizophrenia, occasionally resurfacing for air, but then leading the listener deeper into futility. In short, the abilities of this outfit are to be commended, but the near complete lack of message or purpose in Widow City makes me regret making the purchase.
