This is the Process of a Still Life - s/t
(Firefly Sessions)
If I'd heard this and had to guess who it was, I wouldn't have hesitated to say it's the new Sonna album. What's more, I would have said it was Sonna's best full length, and that I was happy they'd finally reached for the heights they achieved on their EP, The Eventual Bow. But, this isn't Sonna. It's a band from Missoula, Montana of all places.
Unabashedly inhabiting the same musical terrain as Tristeza, Explosions in the Sky, Maserati, and (the previously mentioned) Sonna, This is a Process of a Still Life's music is decidedly post-rock, combining ambient textures, clean and noodly guitar lines, drums, bass, and a Fender Rhodes into beautiful soundscapes. This album is better than any of Tristeza or Sonna's albums. It's different enough from the others mentioned that I can't really compare them fairly, but I do think this is done at least as well as any of the above bands' albums. And it's easy to become cynical about an album like this, since there have been so many like it in recent years. But, again, this album has an intangible quality that so many don't.
The dynamic distorted guitar that bursts in partway through "No Memory of the Airshow," breathes some energy into the otherwise gently cinematic beginning of the album. The next track is a peppy song built largely around organ and chiming guitars. "The Thing We Learned About Neptune" is an unassuming song with great interplay between the two guitarists, and a nicely echoing Rhodes. A cello pops up in "Pretty is Predictable" and "Skywriting Over Virginia" giving the songs some textural depth and variety.
The last track, "Things/Cells/Beings," is the one that is easiest to point to when making reference to Sonna's The Eventual Bow. It begins with delayed ambience and eventually a mournful song rises above the hovering tones. Just beyond halfway through, the rhythm stutters and slows and a build that is more felt than heard mounts tension, quietly exploding with a minimal guitar line.
Where so many of the other albums of this sort have gone wrong, this album doesn't. Maybe the reason can be found in the fact that This is a Process of a Still Life rarely overstay their welcome. Only two songs on the CD break the 5-minute mark, which is unheard of with these bands who play epic and sweeping soundtrack-rock. This is an exciting debut. I look forward to a follow-up.
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