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| BRONZE FAWN: LUMBER |
| Written by Fense | |
| Tuesday, 04 September 2007 | |
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A performance by Bronze Fawn is a surreal instrumental experience. The often black-and-white or sepia-colored video projected behind the band and looped live by Dan Wilk during their performance stimulates a drug-like stupor which, combined with the post-rock shoe-gaze sounds of the band is quite hypnotic. For any who have experienced their overwhelming live experience, Lumber must be approached cautiously. Like most experimental post-rock and shoe-gaze centric music, one must take in the recorded experience in an encompassing manner. Here’s my favorite: I lay down on the carpet and put on my giant headphones, which are plugged into my amp; the CD goes into the CD player and I close my eyes as I hit the play button. Ensuring no arbitrary sounds outside the recorded music is, by all means, a necessary part of the audible experience. That being said, the music looses some of its edge without the accompanying video. It’s still quite mesmerizing but with the lack of sight it just doesn’t seem as emotional or hypnotic. That’s not to say it’s lost all appeal—quite to the contrary. The title track contains just as much vigor recorded as live. “Stripper College Fund” and “Ten Is The New Five” have similar results (the other four tracks I leave off simply because I do not recognize them from the two live sets I have witnessed). The lack of imagery instead exposes elements of the songs that otherwise would be lost as focus shifts between audio and video. Raw and unhindered, Bronze Fawn hold together just as well without that added stimulation, making it simply a bonus of their live performance. More apparent are the echoes in guitar, the tightness of the percussion, the minimalistic elements of select tunes and the experimental components. Bryce Shoemaker (Vermilion, Joules) has honed his shoe-gaze skills, combining with it a heavy math-rock influence while drummer Jim Acquavella (The Building Press) matches him at every turn on drums. Rounding out Bronze Fawn are Steve Becker (Kelvin, Orange 13) on bass and Joshua Robertson on keys; both are transplants from Texas. The quartet has a way to go before hitting the status of its influencers Mogwai and Battles, but that’s to be expected from a band just now unleashing their debut. However, Lumber is a worthy beginning which hopefully will be followed with many more recordings. BAND LINKS PREVIOUS COVERAGE TRACK LIST
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