Those of you following post-rock/post-metal/progressive rock are probably aware by now of the quality of bands and music coming out of Sydney. Living in the post-metal camp is three-piece Dumbsaint, whose new record, ‘Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form’ is available with four optional short films. The record is Dumbsaint’s debut album coming after six years on the live scene and a split EP.
There are times when listening to this hour-long record that the songs just beat away at you relentlessly. Yes we all know that feeling of being pummelled around the head by music, but generally the beatings are reasonably short before the next thumping. Dumbsaint tend to sneak in past any defences you may have raised and erode your resilience with a long, sustained series of body punches.
The fact is the record can be heavy going, with the only real moments of lightness coming toward the end, and I fear many listeners may feel like a break after 45 minutes and miss some of the finer moments. It sounds like a collection of individual songs rather than a whole.
Despite the heavy going the investment of sticking with the record pays off as you give in to the repetitive sounds and subtle variety. There is crescendo, but it’s mostly slow and drawn out, a little like extended versions of the middle tracks of the latest Pelican EP. There are certainly traces of Isis and Tool here, although Dumbsaint are far from being clones. When listened to against ‘Exegesis’ by Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster you get an great insight into the different ways these two contemporaries on other sides of the world approach similar sounds in songs of similar length.
I’m not sold on the mix for the drums and would have preferred a more even volume across the kit. Despite this, the drumming from Nick Andrews itself is free, frenetic and indefatigable. Ron Prince’s (Adrift for Days) guitar and the bass of James Thomas travel between delicate ambiance and ripping metal riffs. You need to keep reminding yourself this is not a four-piece.
Opener ‘Rivers Will Be Crossed’ starts on the post-rock side of the scale with chiming guitar phrases picked out before some fat fuzz signals what will soon become the main attack. This starts in earnest in the final third of the song and the metal deluge sets in for the next 40-odd minutes.
‘INT. A CHEERLESS ROOM. A MAN IS SCARED’ (the title is a film script reference – INT= interior setting) is my favourite track and includes samples from the infamous interviews with children on LSD at Timothy Leary’s estate. Nestled within a cracking assault it’s a lesson in restraint and timing of this kind of sampling, one of the best examples I’ve heard in post-rock/metal.
‘Inwaking’ is the shortest track at under five minutes and a change in pace to the previous five while the final two show again the level of contrast found in the opener.
‘Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form’ is filled with subtle variety if you take the time, but you will probably go away feeling the band is capable of a more satisfying album. Perhaps it really does come into its own as music for the short films they have made. Well worth a couple of spins.
Released April 03 2012 through Bird’s Robe
Posted by Gilbert Potts
