Beans - Tired Snow EP
(Zum)
As an overexuberant fan of post rock bands from Slint to Godspeed You Black
Emperor!, I'm more than willing to give a derivative and unoriginal band in
that genre a good review. Beans is a derivative and unoriginal band in that
genre. Unfortunately, though, to make matters worse, they aren't very
inspired either, merely copying moves from other bands, not reinterpreting
them or re-expressing them.
The title track of Beans' Tired Snow EP is the Reader's Digest version of a
Godspeed You Black Emperor! song. There are some quiet guitars and drums that
play around a little before a taped interview is blended into the noise in
the background. When the interview ends, more instruments come in, and the song
gets fuller and louder. Done in 3:45, I guess if you don't have time to sit
through one side of Slow Riot, this is acceptable, but otherwise...
For "Dark Cave at Creek," Beans tries their hands at an ominous, dark country
and western song. It is an acceptable song; the lapsteel and clarinet create
an eerie tone that fit the vocals. It's just this style has been done before
and better by Calexico, The Black Heart Procession, and several other bands.
"Bob" is an incredibly sparse song, made mostly out of field recordings of
children playing and people singing with only a few guitar notes. Eventually
though, the song switches to a recording of sportscasters. Sportscasters?
Sportscasters! Mogwai gave us a college football game just last year, now
Beans is offering auto racing. But they not only take the cue, they take
the cue and dull it down. All we get from Beans is the sportscasting.
The 16 minute epic "Alpaca Llama" closes the album. The band creates most
of their music from improvisation, and this track, recorded live, is the best
example of this and the best track on the album. The more dynamic parts of
this track, towards the end, are interesting, but it's hard to make it through
the scattered beats and excessive sparsity that lead up to them.
Beans no doubt have good taste and are accomplished at (re)creating environment
with sounds, both recorded and from their instruments. They just need to
work more at separating what drives their tastes from what sounds they create,
record, and put their name on.
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