02.02.2009, 12:45
![[Bild: 72661k.jpg]](http://i31.tinypic.com/72661k.jpg)
The Drift - Memory Drawings (2008)
Genre: Instrumental Post-Rock
Tracklisting:
1. If Wishes Were Like Horses
2. Uncanny Valley
3. I Had a List and I Lost It
4. Golden Sands
5. Smoke Falls
6. Lands End
7. Floating Truth
Zitat:The follow-up to their debut "Noumena". Though the music on this release is familiar, there's a depth to both the performance and production that feels new. The direct-to-analog tape mix is used as another instrument to help shape each song, channeling the mythos of late 60s jazz and late 70s dub classics. They've also expanded their influences with shades of afro-beat and disco-soul.
Pitchfork Review: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/re...y-drawings
Zitat:Rating: 7.0
It's difficult to write a review on a record like Memory Drawings, the second studio full-length from the Drift-- not because the music is especially enigmatic, but because it stubbornly, almost grouchily, avoids exposition. On one hand, the Drift is pretty easy to categorize, residing on the post-rock-heavy label Temporary Residence and creating the same sort of obtuse instrumental compositions as label-mates Explosions in the Sky and Mono, and fellow San Franciscans Continental. But it's not quite so easy to locate their tenor, to get the band's own "drift."
Just about everything about the Drift screams "slippery slope": The vague bebop influence-- jazz brass and double bass both crop up-- runs the risk of turning into Beat café beard stroking; the dub infused post-rock flavor can evoke jam bands; long stretches of little-changing guitar riffs and horn swells can become a chore. This all would seem to damn Memory Drawings as a cliché from the outset. But it's an intriguing contradiction that the band's somber vibe, similar to that of their Temporary Residence contemporaries, rubs up against their jazzy backgrounds to reveal a subtle inner game of impatience tugging at all edges of their compositions.
The Drift have been eager to step out of their affinity for ambient rock ever since the group's first release, the Streets/Nozomi EP. The folky influence of New Weird America seeps through, frosting the light tremolo-affected guitar that leads into "I Had a List and I Lost It", and providing melodic counterpoint to the doleful brass of "Smoke Falls". Then the group can, on a whim, seamlessly transition from electric folk into the space-age resonance of dub on "If Wishes Were Like Horses". But given all the random noise and offhand feedback that could be heard on their debut full-length Noumena, Memory Drawings is a comparatively straightforward take. These compositions, scooting to a start from the first plaintive guitar riff or trumpet line, are exquisitely seen, never dilly-dallying over their eight-odd minutes. From the driving "Uncanny Valley" pour shades of funky soul along with detached guitar and twittering trumpet lines. "Golden Sands" could be mistaken for the Balearic kraut-dub of Sweden's Studio or London's A Mountain of One, especially considering the hypnotic and sometimes fiery battery commanded by drummer Rich Douthit.
Memory Drawings may be the friendliest recording the Drift have released thus far, but it still escapes rational discussion beyond the summation of its influences. Part of the problem is that the group doesn't really profess mastery of any of those influences, preferring instead to shop around for an assortment of textures to suit their needs. Half the time, the band doesn't sound at all like a dub group, and their jazz influence only rears its head when Jeff Jacobs' brass or Safa Shokrai's bass decides to step up the tempo. But the Drift exercise great taste and patience in the contemplative histories they borrow from, and while they tarry in the classic post-rock world of repetitive, abstract grooves, they also keep one foot in some other fantastic land at all times, always one step ahead of our efforts to apprehend them.
www.myspace.com/trldrift
mal was ganz ruhiges. aber noch kein ambient. intrumenteller Post-Rock, mit blechblässerbejazzung. ein bisschen arg sanf und melodiös, aber in dieser mischung irgendwie doch recht interessant und anregend. [6/10]
