Talk Talk, Slowdive, Zoviet France, The Verve, Spacemen 3, Neil Young, Boris, Angelo Badalamenti, Labradford, Boxhead Ensemble, Bark Psychosis, Bohren & Der Club of Gore; these are only some of the bands that critics have tried to compare Zelienople to throughout their career. While certainly elements of the band's sound could be related to any of these artists, for the most part these comparisons are solely the product of lazy writers. The band sounds at times like all of these artists, sure, but Zelienople is, and always has been, their own beast. Mixing elements of post rock, slowcore, drone, ambient and jazz, Zelienople has emerged as one of the most original bands of the past decade. Nearly every attempt to pigeonhole them ultimately comes up short, only hinting at a tiny part of the band's sprawling sound. The only word that can truly describe these guys is hypnotic. Listen to a Zelienople album from beginning to end and you will be transformed. There is a natural immersion that occurs when listening to their records. You get lost in their songs, and when you surface there is almost a zen-like calm to everything.
"Give it Up" marks the band's sixth proper album and one of their very best. As with their last album "His/Her," there is a cohesive progression to these songs. Beginning with the doom riddled "Aging," the band sets the tone by sinking the listener immediately in the deep end. Singer/guitarist Matt Christensen's voice begins as a whisper and slowly builds toward an anguished cry, asking "how did we get this way? how did we get this old?" rhythm guitar/multi-instrumentalist Brian Harding provides a sonic patchwork out of keyboards, guitars and woodwinds that echoes the deterioration reflected in Christensen's lyrics. This is the most doomy song Zelienople has ever recorded, and it fits them well. "Aging" finds the band at their most minimal, while still maintaining an impressive depth of field that is central to Zelienople's sound. This is a band that demands "deep listening," as so many elements exist under the surface of their songs to be explored. Even on repeated listens, something new crops up, and "Aging" is a prime example of the band's craftsmanship in this regard. The song is rounded out by a cloudy drone punctuated by the type of percussion effects that has increasingly made drummer Mike Weis one of most impressive and unique drummers playing. Dude is in a league with Jim White.
"Can't Stop" highlights Weis' work as he lays down a circular rhythm constructed out of bass drum, dumbek, dholak, claves, and a vibrator spinning on the inside of a Turkish frame drum; yes, I am serious. Harding's guitar follows the rhythm darting in and out of frame, while Christensen's guitar eventually erupts into a quasi-psychedelic soundscape that almost sounds like amplified bed springs. Frankly it wouldn't surprise me one bit if that is what Christensen was playing. For a band who earlier in their career made "Ink," an album that featured a slew of homemade instruments, bed springs wouldn't be too far of a stretch. Album highlight "All I Want is Calm" follows. The song sounds simultaneously submerged and spatial. Subtle, but propulsive, percussion carries the song along as a minimal pattern of notes repeats. Alternating between pleas for solace and resignation, Christensen's voice sounds distant initially, but quickly find its way to the center of the piece. The song builds throughout with Harding's subtle woodwinds and layers of Weis' percussion. The piece has a narcotic effect on the listener that is bolstered by the haze of "Water Saw." "I Can Put All My Faith In Her" finds the band returning to a more traditional slowcore, shoegaze sound. Early Verve admittedly comes to mind here. The song is an easy piece to love and proves how adept at this kind of thing the band has become over the years.
"Little Lady Eyefull" sets the stage for the album's close with the band's most effective and haunting moment. A steady drone plays throughout as a somber vocal performance by Christensen takes center stage alongside a gentle reoccurring guitar pattern. Weis' subtly chaotic free jazz backbone gives the song an immediacy and depth that very few similarly situated songs achieve.
The album ends with a couple of patented Zelienople ambient experiments. Both pieces continue to submerge the listener in the depths of the ocean of sound that the band has been creating throughout "Give It Up." When it is all over the world emerges slowly through a narcotic haze, and oddly every car that passes by, every creak of the floorboards and hum of the machinery that surrounds us suddenly come into sharper focus than ever before. Zelienople inflicts that kind of existential experience, and it is as exhilarating as it is calming. I can't think of another band that has that effect, or at least that profound of an effect.
"Give It Up" is easily one of the richest and finest albums of 2009.
"All I Want Is Calm"
Listen to "Give It Up" in its entirety here
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