Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tibetan Crime Jazz?, 30 Mar 2008
Citing an album title by the classic British Reggae-Punk band Culture Shock, I have to say that for Grails it's been a case of `onwards and upwards'- for this is a bedroom project begun in Portland, Oregon in 1999 that never expected to aspire to such heights. After some initial promising forays, Grails finally asserted their significance with the collected `Black Tar Prophecies, Vol 1, 2 & 3' on Important Records, which led to them being snapped up by Temporary Residence. And now with `Burning Off Impurities', they have gone beyond asserting their significance and onto establishing themselves as one of the finest instrumental rock bands around, placing them, in my opinion, up there with such acclaimed greats as Explosions in The Sky, Mogwai, and Godspeed You Black Emperor. Crucially however, they achieve this without mimicking or duplicating the sounds of those bands at all- Grails are different, with a distinctive sound all their own.
Whilst in some respects Grails might seem like a conventionally heavy, acid rock band with a folky flavour, in others they do provide some of the aforementioned `culture shock'. It's just that it all flows so smoothly and coheres so well that the innovative blend of musical elements doesn't leap out, clamouring for your mind to designate it as quirky and hybrid. On their MySpace site they list themselves as sounding like `Tibetan Crime Jazz', which, amusingly daft as it may seem, actually makes sense once you've heard them. So what do Grails give us with this eminently listenable album? It's grandiose without being pretentious, it has heavy riffing without sounding crass and moronic, it has insistent rhythm and melodic subtlety, it has spooky and compelling ambience- in short, it has the wow factor.
Searching for descriptive reference points, I'm inclined to say that `Burning Off Impurities' has the bombast of Black Sabbath's `War Pigs' combined with the oriental mystique of Led Zeppelin's `Black Mountain Side', but in doing so, it utilises so many more sources of instrumentation (harmonica, mandolin, brass and more). Grails succeed in looking to the past even as they forge a new direction for the future. If you like the idea of a band that can navigate its way into new territory without sacrificing its defining integrity, that sounds like a blueprint for a classic rock of the 21st century, then do yourself a favour and purchase Grails' latest album.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Burning Off Impurities..., 22 Jan 2008
Grails are a band I've known for a while and never taken much notice of. I purchased their debut on Neurot recordings in 2003 shortly after it came out and never bothered to follow it up until now. I'm glad that I did.
The Burden of Hope was an interesting record; lead by sawing violin and subtle guitar work, yet to me, it gave off a vibe that it was incomplete; the songs didn't have room to breathe and the band possibly weren't experienced enough at that stage to expand upon the bare bones of the tracks. The fact that the best song off that album was a cover of the Sun City Girl's `Space Prophet Dogon' would back up my theory.
Burning off Impurities, not only shuns those accusations, it blows them away and incinerates them. The compositions are fleshy, interesting, filled with more than competent multi-instrumentalism and are very memorable.
Whereas the tracks on Burden of Hope averaged about three and a half mins, their average length on Burning off Impurities is almost seven and a half. This gives the tracks time to breathe, time to unravel and time for the musicians to take the track to wherever it needs to go rather than cull it before it's natural climax. You get a real organic, free flowing vibe off Grail's music, however arty that may sound I can't think of another way to describle it. Each track is different yet forms part of a cohesive whole and each track has many sections and phases that seem completely natural and free flowing. It's fantastic to hear.
There are no duff tracks on here either, only more memorable ones. The two that stick in my mind are Dead Vine Blues and Origin-ing. The former has an irresistable folky acoustic picked intro and crescendos near the end with noisy strumming before fading out on a nice looped bassline and spooky reverb-drenched chords. Origin-ing is my favourite of the album. It's propelled along by an almost Ozric Tentacles-esque dub-style bassline which slithers below some noisy melodic electric guitar chords. It all ebbs and flows and morphs until it collapses in on itself with a noisy riff then floats back out again with the original bassline. Highly enjoyable indeed.
So, discover Grails if you're partial to fantastic instrumental music working outside the trappings of modern genres and doing what the hell they want.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Good idea music, 26 Aug 2009
"Good idea music" is everywhere. It's on all those websites and blogs you bookmark. It's a mash of all the genres you like and the mass genre defining makes you drawl. It is talked about by others in such a way you think it could well be your favourite album ever made.
Grails fit this bill perfectly. Here's some labels I've found researching this album - post rock, experimental, world music, tribal, krautrock, instrumental, post metal, jazz...Being a big fan of many of these genres, it sounds absolutely enthralling. Throw in the `world music' tag, and even the daring `tribal' - the kind of vague, half-arse terminology thrown around in music - and you have yourself a melting pot of amazement.
Unfortunately, as with all "good idea music", the whole package is not the sum of its parts. You realise these wild and genius genre labels are mere reference points. I think of someone listening and thinking "oooaa this is kiiiiind of like Can....?Yes, this is sort of krautrock!" I also get the sense this is how Grails make the music, adding bits here and there, touching upon styles and sounds. It's unconvincing and timid. Instead of researching and delving into a sound, they add `influences'...flourishes of a weird unknown instrument, or a melody converted into electric guitar.
The whole album becomes an amalgamation of undeveloped references and influences. Songs blend and merge, building in volume and texture until deconstructing, all the time encompassing these influence/reference sounds. It's interesting to begin with and maybe for a couple of spins, but soon it becomes one-dimensional and predictable. It just seems too easy.
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