The Birdwatcher - The Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn
(Arena Rock)
Windsor for the Derby's Dan Matz has turned his solo 4-track project,
The Birdwatcher, into a full band and has released his debut album, The
Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn, first of a three-part series covering
morning, afternoon, and night. Those coming to the Birdwatcher from
Windsor for the Derby get a small treat at the beginning of the album,
the soft, minimal patchwork of tones in "Cutting Rope" that is very
reminiscent of Matz's other band. However, after that song, the
style changes drastically--closer to a slowcore version of Pink Floyd.
Despite the growth in supporting cast, The Birdwatcher seems to still
be a 4-track project, and the songs suffer greatly from the low
fidelity. Several times, when Matz's voice is used, the accompanying
background hiss from the microphone cancels out the other instruments
in these sparse songs. This is just not the type of music that can
survive such artifacts. The music is so spare and minimal that any
distraction seems to ruin the sound.
Not all can be blamed on recording equipment, though, as some of
these songs are just poorly written. "Dawn" tests the patience
of even the most ardent minimalist, taking 7 minutes to unravel
itself and when doing so, only becoming a very ordinary three
chord guitar riff. "Little Birdy" and "No Expectations" sound
like run of the mill folk songs (although the latter is a Rolling
Stones cover), both sounding rather simple and plain.
There are several good songs though. "Dawn" may fail to keep
your attention, but the equally lengthy (both over 10 minutes)
"First Bright Light" works much better, switching pace and
volume several times throughout the song, going from minimalist
to folk hoedown to country sprawl to power rock. Much like
the also outstanding "Cutting Rope" that opens the album, "The
Hunt" and "Bound to Collide" use enough tricks Matz learned
in his old band, like creating and mixing pure tones to create
simple but warm progressions, to create decent songs that
still fit the framework of Matz's more Floyd-ian direction.
The theme for the album, morning, is well represented. The
songs recreate fairly well that feeling you get when you move
from the safe confines of your bed into the busy, noisy
outside world. However, there are enough below average songs
here to think the project might have been better as one CD
divided into three parts as opposed to three full length CDs.
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