5 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Producer: Christopher Badger, Everlovely Lightningheart

…And on each subsequent listen, I grew to love this more and more.  I started with some judgements that were scraped away as I delved further into the experience; I felt rewarded by almost every moment of this 40 minute trek of track, which is absolutely unusual for stretches of either improvised or composed music – generally, almost always, one layer is used in repeat to eventually give way to another layer, which is more powerful because of the build and wait – with our single “song” of ‘Cusp,’ E.L. are doing more than layering, somehow, making each step of the climb seem necessary to lead to the next – without a sense of ascent or descent in structure, and yet, with an overall feeling of progress.  Making this up, am I?  Probably.  And it’s noted that I didn’t feel this way on my first go-round.

Rather:

Listen 1 – I’m looking at our lovely artwork with its line of stitching on one side, a separate non Aaron Turner credit for the design, and yes, Hydra Head is an experimental label but it certainly leans toward hardcore, or something that’s been influenced / touched by that in some way – but I suspect that Everylovely might fall into that category of unclassifiable releases that, at one point, I would’ve called hit or miss but I am now re-evaluating as essential to the label’s scope.  After giving the song five minutes to warm up, I feel I’m correct, and the exhaustive list of all of the instruments used in the liner notes is givin’ me that high-falutin’ nose-up impression of the band.  But, as 40 minutes stretches on, I’m surprised at how much noise they wring from seemingly humble starts, and how it builds to such harmonic dissonance from out of nowhere and yet naturally.

Listen 2 – I’m caught in the flow.  But I’m critical of this being one track.  There are pauses where the soundscape does shift – certainly that could’ve been divided by a track?  The details make it sound like this was actually separate recording sessions, so… what gives?

Listen X – it’s all essential.  You should have no reason to stop, to check the name of the song.  Would I accept another 1-song release from this group?  Would I know what I wanted from another release?  No idea.  But I know that ‘Cusp’ is all things in one song, the kind of gentle cacophony that Kranky bands are too high to nail (or some other stupid insult that’s probably not true and if I listened more intently to some of those bands I’d probably change my mind).

Meh meh meh.  Exactly what it needs to be.