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A
few days ago I read an article about this Chicago band. I guess
they were once a trio, but are now a duo after bassist Colin
DeKuiper departed. For the recording of Station they
headed to Seattle to immortalize these songs with popular
producer of the week Matt Bayles in Seattle. They said that
their idea was to come back with a very heavy finished product,
but that during the whole recording process things just changed
and Station ended up being one soft and mellow record. To
soft, I’d like to add the adjective ‘boring’. I put it on
the other day while I was driving to work and I almost crashed
three times. That’s two more than normal. Station is more
powerful than Ambien and Mirapex combined, and sometimes that
can be good, but only when the sleeping will be pleasant and the
dreaming comforting. Not here. Imagine dreaming of a flatline.
Nothing else. Just a line. A white line with no colors against a
pink ass background. Unmoved. Half-assed. Tedious after its
first 30 seconds Station begs for some imagination but
apparently there were no charitable hearts around.
It is all
perfectly exemplified in opener “Campaign”. Quite frankly, one
of the most pointless and tiring instrumentals I’ve ever heard
this year, where the band fails to achieve whatever it is they
were trying to achieve. That is assuming they were actually
trying to achieve something. It almost sounds like they found
themselves at the studio and were like ‘what the fuck, just
play something mellow and we’ll push the Record button’. At
least second song “Harper Lewis” gets the music moving, picks up
the pace and grows a little bit, but at the same time at their
loudest Russian Circle sounds small, not like they are missing a
member but like they haven’t eaten in about a week. Diminutive
and weak, and that’s an issue that every instrumental post-rock
or whatever band have to deal with. Per the absence of vocals
you have to manifest yourself, so if you are going to rock out
you better make sure you are packing. And if you are going to be
mellow, then we want something really pretty. This is neither.
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