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Review by Bill Binkelman Hammock is the duo of Mark Byrd and Andrew Thompson. I can't detail the instruments they play on their recording, Kenotic; the liner notes list the accompanying guests and merely state afterwards "...and as our last act of defiance, all other sounds by: Hammock." I can tell you, though, that the music on this CD is brooding yet beautiful, dark and spooky at times but also warm and inviting, and if pressed to classify it, I'd label it a combination of post-rock and dark-ish ambient. Kenotic is the soundtrack for cool autumn days when the sun filters through bare oak branches and the wind sends dry leaves scurrying, but it's also the soundtrack for cold forbidding winter nights, when the world outside calls only to the heartiest souls to venture out into its frigid pleasures. On the other hand, you could do a 180 and say the album paints portraits of barren fall landscapes, bleak and brown, an environment that turns stout souls to morose reflection, but it's also a sonic guide to the beauty of winter, when lightly falling snow is illuminated by city streetlights and as it falls it makes the softest sigh of a sound as the hushed quiet of a world blanketed in cold and repose brings peace and solemnity to the troubled heart. Okay, all that poetry aside, Byrd and Thompson use electric guitars (played in the drifting ambient style of a Jeff Pearce as well as texturally a la Jon Durant and also straight up as, well, guitars), drums, and textures, synths, and electronics (as well as aforementioned accompanists on piano, cello, percussion, and "angelic vocals") in a variety of ways. As a result, sometimes you'll hear trap kit drums underneath blistering subdued electric leads and feathery rhythm guitar in a graceful yet powerful ballad ("the Air Between Us"), or a forlorn quasi-ambient trip into vaguely disquieting peals of lonely guitar, tolling reverbed bells, and spacial effects a la Pink Floyd's Umma Gumma ("Miles to Go Before Sleep"), or sustained reverberating guitar notes that glide and dip, merging with a wall of sound sculpting layer upon layer of texture and then joined by an undercurrent of percussion and cello ("Overcast/Sorrow"). I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that getting through this entire CD (70 minutes!) is tough-sledding at times. Not every song is oppressive or particularly dark, but this is frequently not "soft" music, even when it strolls into lighter emotional resonance. Myself personally, I only listened to the entire album all the way through (in one sitting) once. Perhaps if played as background ambiance, the pervasive presence of all those guitars and the full mix (many of the instruments seem to swirl around in the soundfield, surrounding the listener intentionally, I would assume) are easier to assimilate. On the other hand, in the proper mood or in the correct environment, Kenotic might be the perfect elixir. Byrd and Thompson are special visionaries and highly skilled at the craft of making music. This is not simple drone music; it's complex, sophisticated, and dense, but it's also not alienating, pseudo-intellectual, or moribund. Obviously, or at least to me, an album with titles like "Blankets of Night," "Through a Glass Darkly" and "You May Emerge From This More Dead Than Alive" is a recording that addresses the darker side of music; but surprisingly, Hammock make music that is filled with human emotion and passion. Kenotic is a voyage into the musical spectrums of a sepia-toned world, where subtle differences distinguish joy from sadness, wonder from despair, and resilience from resolve. Barren but not bare, sad but not disheartening, this album speaks its truth plainly. Not for everyone, probably, but electric guitar fans and lovers of post-rock who desire a slow burn of melancholy flavor, or ambientphiles who are searching for something new and meaty to sink their teeth into without resorting to anything "cheery" or friendly, should both check this out. While I'd prefer a shorter trip (i.e. a less lengthy CD), I recommend the album. |
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