About The For Carnation
For Carnation, own project of Slint's guitarist Brian McMahan, followed Gastr Del Sol's route to subtle dynamics and wasteland-evoking soundscapes on two EPs, Fight Songs (1995) and the superb Marshmallows (1996). They refined the art of low-key, sparse but nonetheless complex compositions to the point that For Carnation (2000) betrayed virtually no emotions, just illusions of emotions.
Brian McMahan is one of the fundamental figures of the 80's rock scene, busy keeping together the glorious Squirrel Baitat first, as the prophet of the most influential band of the last fifteen years, the Slint, later. Helped by the Tortoise, he brings to life For Carnation who release an EP. Months later, the line-up has changed completely. The music is what you would expect from Slint if they were still around: the subsonic bellow feeds from pauses, not sounds.
On the first 'shy' EP, Fight Songs, (Matador, 1995) the long and tender Grace Beneath The Pines and the martial Get And Stay Get March, reveal the group's slow and extremely quite style.
The majestic Marshmallows(Matador 1996), with its six complex compositions in key minor, shows through the weight of the band's potential. The dreamy ballad of On The Swings , the delicate Romanza......[Read More]
About The For Carnation
For Carnation, own project of Slint's guitarist Brian McMahan, followed Gastr Del Sol's route to subtle dynamics and wasteland-evoking soundscapes on two EPs, Fight Songs (1995) and the superb Marshmallows (1996). They refined the art of low-key, sparse but nonetheless complex compositions to the point that For Carnation (2000) betrayed virtually no emotions, just illusions of emotions.
Brian McMahan is one of the fundamental figures of the 80's rock scene, busy keeping together the glorious Squirrel Baitat first, as the prophet of the most influential band of the last fifteen years, the Slint, later. Helped by the Tortoise, he brings to life For Carnation who release an EP. Months later, the line-up has changed completely. The music is what you would expect from Slint if they were still around: the subsonic bellow feeds from pauses, not sounds.
On the first 'shy' EP, Fight Songs, (Matador, 1995) the long and tender Grace Beneath The Pines and the martial Get And Stay Get March, reveal the group's slow and extremely quite style.
The majestic Marshmallows(Matador 1996), with its six complex compositions in key minor, shows through the weight of the band's potential. The dreamy ballad of On The Swings , the delicate Romanza by piano of Marshmallows, the tiptoed waltz and the light crescendo of Salo stand as a masterpiece of repressed emotions. The culmination of their desolate and grieving dramas, close relatives to those by Tim Backley or by David Cosby, is maybe found in the set up, all shadows and hints reminders of Winter Lois, between haggard baritones, tinkles of chimes and industrial noises. The only passionate moment is the pressing dissonant raga of I Wear Gold in which the Velvet Underground of threethousand is revealed. The long, plotless trance Preparing To Receive you closes the record, as boring as waiting to die on a deserted land. The armonies are flat surfaces, very carved and slightly deformed by echos and by minute tones. The singing is always in a trance, about to dissolve in the apathyic tones of a moan that does not hurt anymore. Only six songs. Enough to keep a myth alive. McMahan is one of the major musicians of this age.
Fight Songs and Marshmallows were combined into Promised Works, first almost secretly published by the ultra tiny italian Runt label back in 1997, now due out later this year on Touch and Go for a proper US 2nd edition.
For Carnation (Touch & Go, 2000) relies on a solid line-up which backs Brian McMahan with Michael McMahan (guitar), Bobb Bruno (guitar and keyboards), Todd Cook (bass) of Sonora Pine, Rafe Mandel (guitar, keyboards) and Steve Goodfriend (drums). John McEntire helped out from behind the desk. The sound is even sparser than on previous releases, the dynamics even subtler. The eight minutes of Empowered Man's Blues approach slow-motion funeral music: drums hardly drum and guitars hardly ring while McMahan begins to whisper his story (think Tim Buckley fronting Portishead) but then, somehow, the dirge mutates into quasi-minimalist bass figures, dilated drumming tempos, violin wails, electronic noises, and the voice is suddenly propelled in noir melodrama (think Nick Cave sleepwalking into the set of "Twin Peaks"). The band drowns the depressed confession of A Tribute To, into a syncopated dance groove, a repetitive guitar figure and a lively repertory of ghostly noises.
Tales emerges from a nightmarish beginning to a psychological tension created by aggressive drumming and dark keyboard motives. Over eight minutes, the thick texture creates the kind of suspense that the Doors or the early Pink Floyd would generate in their extended jams. Moonbeams, the longest track at nine minutes, features the most tender melody in an extremely slow crescendo. The light swing of Snoother is the closest thing to a conventional song. Being Held is an instrumental track that simply builds a rhythm around a ringing guitar tone. This is music of extreme patience and intelligence, that shows no passion and no emotion because it is not interested in short-term dividents but in long-term investments: only at the end of a song one realizes how many things took place, only at the end of the album one realizes how much richer the world of music has become.
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