Triple Burner
"Let's Build a Fire" CD
Madrona Records
Genre: instrumental folk rock
Madrona
C.P. 253
Succ. R
Montreal, QC
Canada H2S 3K9
May 2006 |
Having spent the past year in Montreal, I've gotten to discover a
number of excellent new bands hitting the scene. One of the most
intriguing is Triple Burner, a collaboration between
instrumental folk stalwart Harris Newman and GY!BE
member Bruce Cawdron. Their two recent shows in Montreal (live
reviews of both are on Indieville) garnered a decent
amount of buzz, and excitement for this new album - available in June
- is pretty high.
Interested parties: you will not be let down. This well-recorded,
beautifully packaged album is filled to the brim with rolling,
engaging instrumental folk. It takes the fingerpicking folk style of
Newman (whose work is predictably very influenced by that
oft-mentioned wonder John Fahey) and crosses it with a more
rock-based approach somewhat in line with Pell Mell. After a
minute of ambience entitled "Kelvin Says," this disc kicks right into
gear with "The Wherewithal," a duo for guitar and bowed glockenspiel
that features some truly full-bodied guitar plucking. Excellent
melodic themes throughout prevent the track from ever approaching
tedium. "Roundabout" brings percussion into the mix, which is where
Triple Burner finds its true groove - the rhythmic drums and
textured cymbals add momentum to Newman's flawless guitarwork.
This theme continues throughout, reaching a pinnacle with "The Pulse
of Parc Ex," a fourteen minute epic built on a gradually evolving
guitar melody. Such a long composition would seem vulnerable to
becoming boring, but such is never the case here - the tension and the
rises and falls in the music are consistently enjoyable, producing a
dreamy atmosphere like nothing else. The closing track ends somewhat
strangely - just a fadeout from a repeating guitar part - but such is
the nature of such a loosely flowing (yet still cohesive) record.
Triple Burner have put together a fine record here; I dare say
this is among the finest GY!BE offshoot projects, though the
Godspeed connection is made practically trivial by the album's
uniqueness. Highly recommended.
MP3 (from triple-burner.com):
Bride of Bad Attitude
88%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 9 tracks, distributed by
the label, released 2006] |