Early Day Miners - Placer Found
(Western Vinyl)
Rarely does music so effectively evoke such vibrant imagery. As much
influenced by the concept of the Southwest as any one other artist, Early Day
Miners creates dark, complex soundscapes of windswept deserts, rolling hills,
and desolate, barren areas that send the listener to places once thought
forgotten.
That is, the songs are so engaging and enveloping that they cause the listener
to lose track of thought and recall images, places, and memories stored at the
back of the mind. What each listener sees or feels in the song is entirely
reliant on their own experiences. The drumless instrumental "In These Hills,"
for me, brings back memories of family car rides in hilly areas of western Ohio
(perhaps these songs should be left untitled).
The acoustic guitar intro mirrors the quiet contemplation of a silent car
ride before a second guitar and keyboard enter and the tempo begins to increase.
The song then becomes more sensual and almost jubilant, the melody carrying the
listener away, drawing their attention away from themselves and focused on the
ride through the hills.
The hushed, at times strained vocals serve merely as a roadmap to the
experience of listening to these songs, allowing the music to express the
actual feelings and sensations. Although I have listened to
"Desert Cantos," the slowly-unfolding 12 minute song that ends the album,
dozens of times, I still have little idea of what the lyrics are (something
to do with a "tradesman returning home"). At times, the words sung seem
more important than the sentences and ideas they form, like the use of the
phrases "snowfall Central Park" and "sirens ring the sky"
in "East Berlin at Night." Much more expressive and, well,
relevant is the aura of the song created by the instruments, such as the spooky
aura of "Desert Cantos" created by a bellowing harmonica
and haunting keyboards that surrounds the guitars and vocals.
Overall the band displays excellent use of sparsity and dynamics in their
arrangements, so as to best elevate the mood and increase the power of the
surrounding fuller sections and overall piece. Sometimes such music can
become drab and unengaging, but Early Day Miners manages to keep ahold
of the listener's attention with its excellent use of texture and by never
relying on formula.
Independent music's supply of slow, textured music has started to trickle as
Codeine, Rex, and Bedhead all disbanded and Seam lowered production. Early Day
Miners is able to fill that void while making the music seem fresh and new by
focusing on the outward-in instead of the inward-out, putting a higher priority
on creating mood, images, and feeling instead of melody, rhythm, or riffs.
(note: Read the recent interview with Daniel Burton of Early Day Miners where he discusses
the band's origins, its connection to the Southwest, and the band's fall tour
plans.)
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