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Album Review
by SashaS
3-4-2002
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| Simian glow in cultural darkness |
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Simian : 'Watch It Glow (EP)'
(Source)
Simian reminds the critic of a magical place in North Wales, Portmeirion
Different day, different aural requirement needs to be slaked. There are very few bands nowadays that offer a variety on an album to fulfil the need, most of the time. Simian, one finds, can be employed to satisfy any need as long as you don’t need to go clubbing. Melancholy, rockism, experimento, left-field, pop, prog, how far do you want me to list?
‘Watch It Glow’ is a reissue and, hopefully, a reminder that Simian had a very interesting album last year but ‘Chemistry Is What We Are’ apparently only attracted science students, or sumfink. Simian’s opus tend to be on the ‘sleeper’ side, you need encore-experiences to dig its multiplicity. It is not difficult but it is not of the familiar tissue that is so warn to be transparent; there are also hooky moments, choruses one can hum…
At the same time it is arranged with some afterthought that goes far beyond charting. At times it sounds like where music might head for the rest of its life, unless led by Simon Cowles-kinds of this world. If I were a buying sort I’d boycott any of that cojoñes and go for the bands like Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Six By Seven, Simian, plus a few American combos…
This six-tracker starts with ‘Drop & Roll’, a hypnotic flight through an underground (over the river Styx?) to emerge above the sun spraying down the happy valley. It is an emo-piece that sports such a sustained passage, it’s almost Radiohead-meets-King Crimson with some industrial effects. It nearly makes you reach for an herbal roll. ‘In Siam’ takes you even higher spiritually, soaring to the hawk’s height before dropping you in a claustrophobic urbanity.
‘The Wist’ wings through its maze of sonic LoFi-ness, ‘Grey’ reflects the colour with restraint but confident sfx at the end, while the title-less track 6 is like being lulled by the waves before a strong tide washes over you with force of a rollercoaster. Can I have another slice of the herbal roll, please?
Simian rightfully used to stage their shows in unusual venues such as churches and their music is fit for masses; there is something ceremonial about it, kinky vicar. Some music evokes memories of people, events, tragedies, some of buildings and food, and some of places: there is a magical hotel-village in North Wales, Portmeirion, that Simian remind me of. Between unreal and surreal…
(Reality is so boringly pop-profitable…)
8/10
SashaS
3-4-2002
Simian’s EP ‘Watch It Glow’ is out now on Source
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