Early Day Miners - Let Us Garlands Bring
(Secretly Canadian)
On their second full length, Let Us Garlands Bring, Early Day Miners add a string section and a bassist but still manage to strengthen their claim to being the new quietest loud band in the world.
While the band's first album, Placer Found, felt like a car ride through the serene desert Southwest, their latest album is more like a leisurely hike. The band takes an even more deliberate pace this time around, letting the listener truly absorb the mood and their surroundings. As a result, the epic highs of the album are much more dramatic and much more vivid; all feelings have been heightened.
"Offshore" is a great example of this deliberate pace enhancing the mood of the music. Lasting over eight minutes, the song is little more than drums and vocals for the first three minutes as the band let's the words seep in, putting you in the place they want you to be for the dramatic changes to come. The new string section comes in during the bridge of the song, signaling the change to come through angular textures, leading up to a lengthy passage of slow but massive guitar riffs that crash down like waves, each note leaving behind a pool of rattle and hum.
Even the less epic-length songs, like "Silvergate," show great patience from the band. The band's main focus, musically, has always been texture, and in "Silverlake," the band expands their exploration in texture to more fuzzed-out, shoegazing styles. Feedback adds background and depth to the song, and the echoed vocals and other distortions create an eerie, contemplative tone; the whole song vibrates and shimmers, giving a new backdrop to the band's warm, calming vocals.
While much of the album does linger and dwell, staying at slow paces, several songs pick up the pace. Nine minute long "Summer Ends" is propelled by insistent drumwork. This song is also another great example of the band's use of texture, as the two guitar parts and the harmonica seem to all be playing at different paces and with different objectives, but the rhythms end up matching wonderfully.
If anything, Early Day Miners have become even more patient and restrained. Let Us Garlands Bring is a quiet, thoughtful album. Much like the cover art, the album is like a warm glow in the middle of a dark, quiet night. While Placer Found was immediately likable, this one is not; it takes time for the nuance and flow of the album to be appreciated—time to adjust to the darkness and quiet of the night.
However, the serenity of the album is immediate, and the band's power to evoke images and feelings is unfettered. With time, as the small turns and gradual builds start to pull you in, the rewards are still big.
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