When two fine musicians like David Bryant (founding member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Set Fire to Flames) and Kevin Doria (founding member of Growing and sole noise terrorist of Total Life), meet and decide to write music together, the expectations are understandably high. Listening to Shortwave Nights, the debut record of this talented collaboration, you'll be fully satisfied because the outcome is definitely brilliant.
David and Kevin met in 2004 and they have been writing music together since 2008 under the name of Hiss Tracts. Their début album will be released in May through the always consistent label Constellation Records and it features materials they worked on during the years 2009-2013.
The duo released a preview of the album about one month ago through the single 'Halo Getters' and its stunning video that gives a deeper dimension to the composition. The video, realized by the talented Karl Lemieaux, is the the music of Hiss Tracts put in images: the rolling reel, the overlaid images and the gurgling bass tones are like the music itself composed by a multitude of overlapping sounds that move all together changing shapes like a big cloud the sky. i watched that video so many times its enchanting effect is undeniable. Hiss Tracts is all about wide-open spaces here and it's very easy to get hypnotized by a single note.
Shortwave Nights is composed by ten movements that kicks off with the title track that's a matter of pure elegance. It combines combines post-rock and drone in a magistral way even though defining the music genre of this record is a bit hard. Somewhere is post rock, sometimes ambient, other times is drone. For sure it's original and demonstrates the talent of the two musicians to push the boundaries of post rock and drone music to create something uniquely beautiful.
'Half-speed Addict Starts With Broken Wollensak' kicks off with the vibrating and repetitive sound sound of a bell that is hypnotic, till the last seconds when the song dissolves like fog when the sun is up.
Hiss Tracts's music, wordless but undeniably powerful, transmits anxiety and beautiful feelings at the same time. It depends on the note you focus on because it's like if Dorian and David use different layers of sounds to create a complex yet original structure. 'Drake Motel /9 Gold Cadillacs' is a short spoken movement that reminds me the style of GY!BE or Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra. Here there's a man who talks about his father and just after about an old prophecy. Honestly, it didn't conquer me but I like its way to break the album mood. The journey through Shortwave Nights proceed on the same path of the previous songs with dark and sometimes dramatic atmospheres full of tension.
The beginning of 'Test Recording At Trembling City' is an example of what i'm saying. The first time I listened to it I imagined my self in a room playing with chargeable toy machines and after a bunch of seconds I was driving one of those cars on a steep road in a complete darkness. Those of you that remember the movie Mulholland Drive know exactly what I mean and maybe agree with me.
Each track has its own intensity. The increments of speed, volume, tone, and the addition of small details and instrumentation are almost imperceptible at times. But other times they are marked and breathtaking.
Light comes with the closing 'Beijing Bullhorn/Dopplered Light' and it's like if the duo never leave you into that darkness but instead crawls out of it towards a new, still-grey light.
The music that Hiss Tracts deliver is that kind of music that can't fade into the background because it asks something of you, it requires interaction. Of all the things it builds, it builds a bridge to the listener.
