ARTICLES
Benoît Pioulard's Précis
Label: Dynamophone
Label: Hidden Shoal

ALBUMS
Aemae
A Lily
Arc Lab
Blotnik Brothers
Gui Boratto
Cagesan
Jeremy Caulfield
Loren Dent
Do Make Say Think
Eats Tapes
Enduser
Domink Eulberg
Explosions in the Sky
Michael Fahres
The Field
Frivolous
Maximilian Hecker
Hug
Hush Arbors
Jan-M. Iversen
Espen Jørgensen
Kattoo
O.Lamm
Bruce Levingston
Tobias Lilja
Lusine
Marcia Blaine School
The Missing Ensemble
Nebulo
Ölvis
Charlemagne Palestine
Palomar
Pornopop
The Postmarks
Propergol Y Colargol
The Retail Sectors
R/R Coseboom
Sankt Otten
Scratch Massive
Slow Dancing Society
Stars of the Lid
subtractiveLAD
Sunosis
Aoki Takamasa
Amon Tobin
Tokyo Mask
Kate Wax
Wes Willenbring
Windmill

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Chaos.Lovers
Cryosphere
Hub: 2004-2005
Rufs
Satoshi Tomiie

3" /7" /10"/12"/EPs
Agnes
AM/PM
Arctic Sunrise
Audion
Characterize 1
Dartriix
Death is Nothing To Fear
Don't Be A Stranger
Einóma
Fusiphorm
Heartthrob
Human Nature
Infant Cycle / Antmanuv
Lilienweiss
Luci
Mauve
Paco Osuna
Ben Parris
Carola Pisaturo
Portable
Sutekh
System
Aoki Takamasa
Cortney Tidwell
Andy Vaz

Do Make Say Think: You, You're A History In Rust
Constellation

Every couple of years, Toronto quintet Do Make Say Think issues a great album, plays a smattering of local dates, and then just as promptly disappears until the next go-round, a cycle that keeps the group's profile low. Which is a bit of a shame considering how deserving of broader recognition its music is, and its fifth album, You, You're A History In Rust, is no exception on that count. In fact, it's been more than a few years since its last release, 2003's Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, but the band's sound—multi-layers of horns, electric guitars, and drums constellating around an acoustic guitar nucleus—has undergone little change in the interim aside from the appearance of vocals and a slightly greater flirtation with country-folk. Once again, the collection features pensive moments (“A With Living”) offset by equally stunning moments of euphoric abandon (“The Universe!”), and the recording approach remains the same too as, like its predecessors, parts of the fifty-minute album were laid down at a family cottage and barn in rural Ontario.

Alternating between anthemic splendor and becalmed languor, the episodic opener “Bound To Be That Way” opens with proverbial calm before the guitars kick in and the syncopated drum attack detonates with fiery precision. Following that, “A With Living” begins like a countryside romp and then enters uncharted vocal territory with the group indulging in a robust round of singing before the tune's finest moment arrives, a gorgeous denouement of lullaby guitars, wordless harmonies, and muted horns. By contrast, “The Universe!” lunges forth in a furious gallop, growing ever more ecstatic when volcanic guitars and blazing horns appear, while equally muscular guitar playing drives the stampeding crunch of “Executioner Blues.” The protracted gaps between releases doesn't engender radical production changes—no one should expect to see guitarists Ohad Benchetrit and Justin Small, bassist Charles Spearin, and drummers Dave Mitchell and James Payment wielding laptops onstage anytime soon—but the group's music teems with ideas and imagination, and so never sounds dated. Do Make Say Think is that rare ‘instrumental rock' band that can make an 11/4 time signature not only sound natural but swing too.

April 2007

This review also appears in Signal To Noise, issue 45.