The
Glutton are a 4 piece band from Norway, Oslo to be exact, and have just
released their debut full length album,
Parts of Animals. The band is in the process of setting up their website
and scouring the internet doesn’t glean a huge harvest of information about the
band. The members of the band are listed as, Jonas (drums), Asmund R Saeboe
(synths/accordion/vocals), Eirik Orevik Aadland (guitar/trumpet/vocals) and
Carl Martin Rosenberg (bass). As the
instrument list includes a couple of instruments you might not expect
(accordion and trumpet) it might suggest that The Glutton are a little out of
the normal mold. This reviewer is always up for a challenge so an interesting
time awaits.
There
is an almost bewildering array of bands that are listed as having an influence
on The Glutton, including Sigur Ros, The Mars Volta, Ulver, Radiohead, Godspeed
You Black Emperor, Mogwai, Yes ,King Crimson and those German pioneering
musicians, Can.
Parts Of Animals is
a 5 track album running to a total of around 45 minutes. The shortest track is
track 4, “Rite de Passage” at 4:05 minutes and the opening, and title, track
“Parts Of Animals” is the longest at just over 13 minutes (13:17).
The
opening track, which is also the title track of the album, “Parts of Animals,”
starts with a single note droning away with various instruments buzzing in and
out over the top, without overstaying and forms a very interesting atmospheric
introduction to the album. Around the 1:30 minute mark, a simple melody is
picked out over a bass line and cymbals before the “real” drums add some
substance to the track, which is constantly growing. A terrific synthesizer
melody rushes to the fore before heading away, leaving a fuzz ridden guitar
leading into a more “conservative” passage of bass/drums driving a keyboard led
melody. A guitar soars in and out above all this, cutting in like a saw, and
the track is driven along in a “taking no prisoners” kind of way. The subtle,
and sometimes, not so subtle changes in tempo certainly maintain the interest,
with the initial theme reappearing as the track moves past the 8 minute mark.
All the band members are given the freedom to show what they can do and they
certainly appear to be very accomplished musicians. Around the 10 minute point
however, there is a discordant passage which does not add anything to the track
(in fact, I found the total opposite) before the track settles back into the
earlier theme again. Overall, a very interesting opener, but I did feel it to
be rather long and think that if the track had finished prior to the discordant
passage around 10 minutes, it would have benefitted the track, and dare I say,
the listener as well.
Two
of the remaining tracks, “Idiot Tornado” and “Ples Zderavca,” have terrific
sections of music which paint vivid aural pictures in the listeners mind, but I
find that the forays into polyrhythmic territory are more of a distraction to
what has gone before, and comes after.
I
am not quite sure why the short track 4, “Rite de Passage,” appears on the
album. It is a soundscape which I really didn’t find particularly interesting
and even at odds with the other four, more substantial tracks. It starts, and
it finishes, with nothing in particular happening in between.
The
last track, “Luciferase” (8:48), stands out after the previous three tracks,
because it is so different. A gentle, drifting track which meanders along,
featuring vocals which add to the atmosphere before a “proper” vocal appears to
carry the track on. The overall sound builds slowly taking the track to its
8:48 minute finale, and I found this track by far the most interesting on the
album.
I
find this album a bit of a conundrum in that I find myself enjoying large
chunks of the tracks, while finding other parts discordant and distracting. The
band have produced an interesting album overall, which is not the easiest to
“get into,” although it does provide an indication that there may be much more
to come as the band evolves.
Certainly
an album to have a listen to, especially if you are a fan of the bands listed
as influences at the beginning of the review.
3.5/5 Stars
Key
Tracks: Parts of Animals, Luciferase
Jim “The Ancient One” Lawson-MuzikReviews.com Staff
March 12, 2013
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