For those of us blessed with short attention spans, instrumental noise experimentation usually isn’t the best musical choice. Most often bored by the second minute, listlessly jiggling our legs, we’re stuck wondering when the intro will end and the song begin.
There are exceptions, of course, and I’ve found that most of these – like the Rachels, Suicide, or Godspeed You Black Emperor…or for that matter Eric Satie or freaking Chopin – use their instruments, whatever those may be, to create a sort of aural movie. Too often instrumentally based noise bands seem to have forgotten this little craft and become lost in hot riffs, obscure sound clips, or wandering freak-outs.
Thankfully The Present, a three piece from NYC, have created with their new album “The Way We Are” a genuine aural masterpiece. As a card carrying member of the ADD club I usually approach music like this with trepidation, but The Present’s music inspires such stories in my mind it’s almost difficult to write this review. And to top it off, I wasn’t bored once. I don’t know the length of “The Way We Are” or the song titles, but I can tell you about listening to the musical, whispered songs and visualizing beautiful kayries in the sacred grottoes of the eternal emerald sea while I struggled to avoid the rampaging malisik. Then there was the thrumming, crashing, grinding throb of the great marchaline obsolisks as they continued on their never-ending trip downward toward oblivion…..but I digress.
The true beauty of The Present’s music is that it can’t be described in a couple of jauntily worded paragraphs. It’s just too vast, it covers too much ground. They’re more of a twisted orchestra choir than your standard three piece band and The Present’s blending of the organic with the mechanical makes “The Way We Are” a truly enjoyable journey through sounds both incredibly beautiful and acidly caustic.
Definitely worth a listen and a buy, the album is out now on CD and LP. If you’re near a city, The Present is currently on tour. Check out their MySpace page for dates and cities, and to take a listen.
