Danielson Famile - Fetch the Compass Kids
(Secretly Canadian)
The Danielson Famile is an odd duck. First of all, you cannot necessarily
trust your first instincts. Though they are, in large part, an actual
family in the traditional sense, they are not the Danielsons. They are
the Smiths, the oldest of which is Daniel. Additionally, Fetch the
Compass Kids is an collection of strange little songs packaged in
quilt-motif artwork. Though they are, in large part, strange little
songs, they are also, like quilts themselves, deceptively simple only to
the casual audience. Upon closer inspection, these strange little songs
reveal themselves to be lyrical riddles embedded in musical puzzles, in
which the listener has been ensnared.
Second, the Danielson Family is pretty weird. They play acoustic guitars,
bells, flutes, various drums and percussions, violins, organs, pianos,
handclaps, and organ snaps. The sisters sing sweet harmonies to brother
Dan's strained falsetto, which can be, at turns, yelping and gentle.
Their lyrics are deliberately opaque, but their structure and delivery
is exceptionally tight, with a flow that should be the envy of any MC.
One can pick out the praise, reflection, and devotion (as the Famile
make no secret of their Christianity), but one also gets the feeling that
there is a little "he who hath ears to hear, let him hear" intentional
obscuring going on.
The music is the toughest part. Don't let comparisons to Frank Black
Francis fool you. Though Daniel's curious vocalizations may be
reminiscent of everyone's favorite Pixie's more strained vocal
histrionics, there is not much more to that comparison. The nearest
musical relative might be Rob Crow's former band, Heavy Vegetable,
which featured similar herky-jerky stop-start rhythms, and skewed,
non-obvious melodies crammed into sing-song tunes. Unlike those kook
rock bands, though, the Danielson Famile seems more interested in
really creating their own musical vernacular, peculiar to their
family set up.
They perform some impressive feats. "Good News for the Pus Pickers"
features not only some dramatic rhythmic shifts, but incredible tone
changes as well, bouncing from heavy, irregular organ riffing, to a
light, bright escalating melody buoyed up by bells and sunny synths,
to an aggressive stilted rhythmic section, and back to the start again,
without losing the continuity of the song (not to mention the tight
circular rhyming of the lyrics throughout the whole track). The title
track begins as voice and acoustic guitar only, a personal psalm, then
bursts open in an old timey gospel hymn (albeit with some raunchy
distortion). Perhaps the finest moment comes at the end of "Can We
Camp at Your Feet," when a sparse and simple tune, the instruments
providing little more than punctuation to heartfelt whispers of the
vocalists, gives way to an emotional climax, with laid-back marching
snares, insistent piano bits, and sustained harmonies creating a
rapturous experience, released in a final sigh of the singers.
The Danielson Famile's cleverness is, like King David, both their
greatest strength and their fatal flaw. I have no doubt as to their
sincerity, however, it is easily obscured in the deliberate trickiness
of the music and lyrical difficulty. The tight family unit has
obviously created a distinct persona and voice, however, it can also
exclude the listener, to whom it may seem a foreign tongue. However,
if you are reading fakejazz, I will assume that you will
take that not necessarily as a criticism but a personal challenge.
After all, its better to go too far than not far enough, right?
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