Sightings - Arrived in Gold
(Load)
This New York trio has made a career of dismantling rock and roll and being utterly difficult to listen to, so it’s fitting that, with Arrived in Gold, Sightings have moved so far to one end of the spectrum that they’ve ended up on the opposite. As in the childhood dream of digging through the earth to China, Sightings have continued to fragment and disassemble rock until they came out on the other side. The splintered pieces that remain have become a new construct, a rather primitive, rhythmic beast that dispenses almost completely with the band’s former, twisted notion of guitar/bass/drums rock ‘n’ roll. Arrived in Gold is post-apocalyptic rock music, fashioned together with mismatched pieces, and, though simplistic in construct, quite compelling in practice.
The almost mechanical cadence that propels Arrived in Gold is a stark departure from Sightings usual percussive aplomb, but the steady, calculated beats are a welcome glue in the trio’s music. For perhaps the first time in the band’s history, Sightings’ music carries real emotional weight, desperate and desolate. The changes that have occurred within Sightings’ inner workings draw them further from their modern-day no wave roots, but there’s no mistaking that Arrived in Gold seems to be a major step forward for the group. Their new direction can’t rival the sheer bombast of Sightings’ older material, but the focus and determination the trio show more than make up for it. Sightings are still a simple band at heart, and though “One Out of Ten” begins the disc with what seems like loosely controlled chaos, Arrived in Gold is quite logically (albeit raggedly) arranged. The usual musical assignments are scrambled, especially in the case of the guitar and drums, which often becomes as essential rhythmic tools as the percussion. The traditional voices of the instruments are manipulated, and while a listener can often identify the sound sources of Arrived in Gold, Sightings have pulled their music even further from its moorings. This continued fragmentation allows for more and more dynamic use of the tonal palette and function of each instrument. The results are less a reaction to pre-existing music, as Sightings’ older material often seemed to be, and more a series of singular statements. Arrived in Gold is the product of a band no longer hell bent on the destruction of rock music, but a band whose focus is on the dust and rubble left behind. This is a step into whole new realm, one that suits Sightings just fine.
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