Hotel Hotel
"The Sad Sea" CD
Silber Records
Genre: instrumental rock,
post-rock, drone
Austin, TX
May 8, 2009 |
After Northern Valentine's
stunning debut, I was expecting a fair amount from Hotel Hotel's
The Sad Sea, another offering from prolific drone imprint
Silber Records. What do you know? They delivered.
This expansive yet personal record is a
thoroughly engaging work of atmospheric post-rock. Skilfully treading
the line between gradual, droning moodpieces and more fleshed out
Explosions in the Sky-esque instrumental rock, The Sad Sea
makes for a distinctly enveloping listen. Custom made for dazey
late-night listening under dim lights (or no light at all), these
eight tracks flow into one another smoothly, seemingly telling a story
along the way. Indeed, the track titles themselves outline the fable,
although I find it more rewarding to conjure up my own images to match
the sounds.
I will remark that, at times, The Sad
Sea does risk losing its audience's attention. Perhaps
occasionally, Hotel Hotel's vast musical excursions may be
better suited to background mood-setting as opposed to consuming one's
full attention. However, this criticism could be applied to many such
atmospheric records, and it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Like
Explosions in the Sky or Stars of the Lid, Hotel Hotel
has mastered the art of building a beautiful record out of
slow-moving, unassuming compositions.
Sidenote: Full credit to Silber Records
for the impeccable design on this release.
hotel
hotel's myspace
85%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 8 tracks, distributed by
the
label,
released 2008] |