Storm & Stress
Storm & Stress
»
Storm & Stress
Storm & Stress
Touch & Go, 1998
RiYL: Don Caballero, Miles Davis, John Cage, Gastr Del Sol |
With its self-titled debut, Storm & Stress deconstruct the idea of the band at the expense of listeners. The seven-song full-length can be taken in either of two ways: as a high-concept experiment that pushes conventions, or as a no-concept practice session that accidentally got recorded in producer Steve Albini's basement.
As a member of the acclaimed instrumental outfit Don Caballero, guitarist Ian Williams' scorching riffs have ignited the band's fiery instrumentals. But whereas Don Caballero aims to layer texture onto the sonic canvas, Storm & Stress concern themselves with punching holes in their musical landscape.
Most of the "songs" stretch past the 10-minute mark, and take a painfully long time to develop. They create tension with restraint, yet seldom deliver a resolution. Like a shower of shooting stars, the album's scattered points of timid beauty vaporize before impact.
On the pensive "Gravity Gives Us Rhythm," Williams' guitar searches for a theme while the drums dance in and out of consciousness. The existential strain of "Today Is Totally Crashing In Bright Lights" builds into a fracas of feedback and spattering, sprawling drums, but only after seven minutes of instrumental noodling and fragmented mumbled spoken word. For the remaining few minutes, each musician pulls and strains to take the song in a different direction, but in the end it goes nowhere.
Although Storm & Stress abandon song structure, they offer little in its absence. Free improvisation can work, if and only if the musicians have something to say. The only thing Storm & Stress seems to be saying is, "We don't want to be a pop band." Mission accomplished.
JAY DEFOORE |