Landing - Sphere
(K)
All of Landing's five albums and twelve releases have been different. Well, they are all essentially the same in the same way that apples and oranges are both fruit. But each release has shown the band starting to follow a different style, whether it be the poppiness of Circuit, the psychiness of Oceanless, or the folkiness of Seasons, only to have the next album start to jut out in a slightly different direction. In order to call out those changes, perhaps this album should be called Is Landing Gonna Have to Smack a Bitch. You know, get all up in your grill, and force you to listen (rekognize). Instead it's called Sphere, which is as innocuous as all their other titles and doesn't tip you off to any of the new mysteries, dark corners, and hidden surprises lurking beneath the cover.
Like all the previous releases, the album is still fruity (not an apple or an orange but perhaps a pomegranate of sweet, sweet feedback covered seeds). In fact it shows a more fleshed out version of the guitar-based experiments the band began with in their debut release Centrefuge. Or maybe it's a more droned out and guitar-centric version of the folk they explored on Seasons and Passages Through. However, Landing is a K band now. This isn't a Strange Attractors release. Shouldn't they be getting more poppy, not less? So why isn't this album filled with campfire songs or maybe ten cover versions of "Shiny Happy People?"
Perhaps, more than anything, this change has to do with Dick Baldwin's temporary move from Connecticut back to his family's home. Baldwin's increased songwriting contribution to Seasons and Passages Through led the band in one of those new directions in sound. While Baldwin is still a full member of the band and appears on many of the songs, much of the first cut songwriting was done by Aaron Snow. Thus, it's no surprise that the songs seem more like solo guitar works fleshed out by the band than songs born out of full band improvisations or collaborations, which perhaps explains why the record seems to have a close kinship with the Centrefuge EP, as it was similarly constructed. As such, the songs sound a bit more experimental and a bit less pop... more prone to whimsical meditation than sing-songy, trance-y repetition.
There's plenty of great songs on Sphere. I love the acoustic guitar part in "Feel, and the Seas Fill." Feedback shimmers around the guitar, giving the song an incandescent glow, sounding like a Flying Saucer Attack song. While Landing lyrics are sometimes personal and sometimes sentimental, this song lifts off another layer and shows real vulnerability. "How far will you fall from, and will I catch you" casts the male Snow as a man coming to terms with being fully grown up, unsure of his ability to handle all these new found responsibilities. Album leadoff "Fluency of Colors" also shimmers. The Aerial M-like guitar is so nice. It's really just a short, swaying piece that is repeated over and over again, but the other instruments bouncing off of it and accenting each note add a lot of nuance, pulling your head above the drift and into the ether. I love how "Sphere" goes from something bright and twinkly into something angry with the great overdriven guitar sound, sounding a little like Kinski at the end, with its Kraut-like tendencies.
Landing has always emphasized sound, and, as you can tell from the songs described above, there's a really good mix of guitar tones on the album and a lot of untraceable effects and samples mixed in to create an incredibly varied space for your ears to explore. The band is able to explore all regions of tone. "Filament" is really sweet and soft at the end, sounding like Ladybug Transistor or a similarly syrupy song, using only the bare nectar of a pop song with no need for extravagance or over-production. Similarly bare but offering a completely different sound, the band uses folky guitarwork in "When the Leaves" and "Feel..." to create a wispy meditative feel. And to contrast both of those, the band offers fuller, more textured and layered compositions like "Into Silence" and "Gravitational 3" that really space out. Drums are also used effectively (and selectively) throughout the album, never overstepping their bounds and never sounding like traditional rock drumwork, whether its the repeating riff that drives the feedback forward in "Gravitational 1" or the marching band snare that gives "Gravitational 2" a Godspeed-like vibe (without all the doom and gloom).
Landing fans don't expect or want to get an album with ten cover versions of "Shiny Happy People." Granted, they are a pop band at heart, but their spirit is often too busy trypping with the clouds and the wind to catch a sunbeam. Maybe a few people will complain there aren't as many pop songs, but it's even more likely that the people who have loved Landing's more psychedelic and experimental songs will love this album even more. Regardless, the tone of the album is really what the band has been about from day 1: supple and calming, filled with interesting sounds. Landing has managed to do the near impossible in staying consistent in tone while never stagnating.
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