No Floor – Helm
Children, especially, can tell when you’re sad. They can identify eyes that are secretly smiling, or a face that, beneath all the stoicism, is holding back the tears. Maybe they’re so good at it because their brains haven’t been bogged down by useless information. And, still, I don’t think that you should envy them. I am convinced that you, dear reader, possess similar powers.
Without any prior training, for example, I believe that you can tell what feelings an abstract painting is trying to share. Without straining your mind too much, I’m sure you can find two words that describe your mood on a regular Sunday morning. And, again, without thinking too much about it, I think that you can detect what story No Floor is looking to share just from that deep murmur of the band’s guitars.
In fact, much of “Helm,” the band’s new single, is driven by an ocean of amplified noise. The sound and dynamics of the song take their influence from ‘90s shoegaze and alt-rock. It’s a language of its own, one that can be understood much earlier than you’ve heard the lyrics. No Floor use this thick walls of distorted guitars to set up challenges that they can defeat, to create a sonic parable of their own lives. Best of all, you’ll know the story the moment you hear the first notes.
talker – Gold Rush
Every human’s got a drama to star in. It’s there when they open their television, but it really puts them centre stage once they begin living their own lives. Never get jealous if you don’t get a bit part in someone else’s production!
That’s why art, and principally music, because of the way in which it can be enjoyed, for many people, must feel like the soundtrack to some tragedy. It must feel that way because that’s precisely the thing that it’s used to do.
Most people are busy, slowly fading into the background, disappearing without a trace. Some, however, are working to reinvent themselves, to snap themselves out of some gigantic traps in which they’ve gotten stuck. That’s the experience that talker is trying to soundtrack.
Aptly, “Gold Rush,” sounds like music recorded in some desert and issued to serve anyone who feels like they’ve been trudging endless, desolate miles. talker makes music about the pain of not just keeping on, but of trying to push yourself toward a goal worth reaching. It’s sad, painful and beautiful. But, most importantly, it’s an honest snapshot of what pulling yourself out of quicksand looks like.
