Do Make Say Think - & Yet & Yet
(Constellation)
Constellation records have become the home to so many good musical projects
that sometimes it's staggering. Do Make Say Think, a six piece collective
from the Toronto area are no exception. This is their third LP for the
label, and by far their most successful. Apparently their last 2 LP's were
recorded in a barn, but for this outing the band moved into a custom home
studio, and it seems the comfort of being at home paid off. & Yet & Yet
displays the workings of a band that, like Talk Talk or Can, find themselves
not only recording in a studio but using it more as an instrument, not so
much developing songs as moods and atmospheres, and taking the record as a
whole into consideration. In the tradition of those bands, this LP has
layers upon layers that fade away and are replaced by others, while drums and
bass give it a solid steady grounding, hardly shifting at all, content to
keep the music very much on earth. The two contrasts allow for a wonderful
and beautiful sense of floating, without the clichés of your typical "space
rock" outfit. Horns, the human voice, and an array of electronics have been
integrated so well in to the mix, as to never sound forced or tacked on.
Tracks like "White Light Of" or "Soul and Onward" slowly transform from
repeating guitar refrains into bright colors of sounds and new voices. An
obvious step forward from just turning on delay pedals and washing
everything over with noise, the band has made some defiant choices of
instrumentation, and the effect is dazzling. Not all is pastoral and laid
back though, as with the track "End of Music" which has a steady groove that
is surrounded by clouds of sound reminiscent of Fripp and Eno's "Evening
Star." The ambience gives way to drum kits galloping along in a sea of
guitar noise that only escalates more and more until the whole thing bursts,
and you find yourself, once again, floating. It's really a beautiful and
captivating ride.
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