(04.07.06) Though the post-rock nature of Swedish six piece Sickoakes’ long awaited debut album for the Type label does not technically fall under the aegis of Igloomag’s “electronic music coverage,” Seawards – notable (Corduroy Road aside) for being the label’s first really major departure from electronic tinged music – so enthusiastically strives for and ultimately achieves an epic greatness that it requires comment. Though it seems something of a cheat to simply cite Sigur Ros or Mogwai as similar territory to Sickoakes’ work the similarities are there, though Seawards is an entirely instrumental work, working its dense and atmospheric magic through potent blends of guitar, saxophone, strings, glockenspiels and various telegraphic and field recordings.
What can at first come across as an inability to deliver upon carefully crafted melodic and textural build-ups latterly reveals itself to be an expert manipulation of melodic structure and emphasis in order to slowly build tension, culminating in a musical frisson that leaves you hanging on every note. This is achieved time and time again during the course of its seven tracks, divisions that seem almost arbitrary given how seamlessly the pieces on Seawards
flow into one another. Sickoakes might as well have divided “Oceans on Hold”, for example, into several separate tracks; such are the shifts in momentum, pacing and texture across its ten minute duration.
Rickety and slightly out of tune piano tinkering kick this epic journey off, before opening up with strings and high-pitched warbling guitars. “Driftwood” quickly merges into dramatic “Taking the Stairs Instead of the Elevator” which positively soars, all the time accompanied by distinctly military percussion. “Oceans on Hold” is the most aggressive and upbeat of the tracks, building up speed with its frenetic guitar until half way through its ten minute duration; with its engine shut off, we are allowed to experience the full length of it’s momentum as the piece slowly comes to a halt.
“Wedding Rings and Bullets in the same Golden Shrine” sees the album reaching its epic zenith. Previously released on net-label Please Do Something with a running time of just over fifteen minutes, Seawards presents a devastating new twenty-five minute version of the track, now split into two parts. The piece unavoidably draws attention to itself, both as a result of its duration and it’s wondrously paced and beautifully crafted build-up, climax and quiet resolution, but it never overshadows the album as a whole.
Part I is comprised of the first five minutes of the original Please Do Something version, all hazy and distant siren-like glissando guitars that echo and wreath through swirling fog. Part II then kicks in with a slowly and metronomically repeated single note that is then built upon, layer by ever more hypnotic layer, until further melodies begin to emerge. The breadth and depth of the piece increases almost exponentially until, seven minutes in, the pace quickens before unexpectedly collapsing into an orchestral and field recorded reprieve. This moment of calm is then shattered by four minutes of dizzying guitar led-mayhem that screeches to a conclusion, only to be followed by another seven minutes of morse-code littered ambience.
This latter portion of the track is perhaps a little over-extended, but in the context of the dizzying and hypnotic intensity of what comes before it (comparable for example to the onslaught of Orbital’s “Out There Somewhere” after the rich and vibrant tapestry of Insides‘s preceding masterworks) it provides well needed relief and relaxation, allowing the listener to recover before “Leonine” sombrely finishes Sickoakes’ majestic travelogue. Awash with regret and the memories of childish innocence, “Leonine”‘s looping introspection yet again leaves the listener hanging; an open-ended coda to what is a snapshot of the musicians’ experiences whilst recording Seawards.
Sickoakes’ sound is clean and bright with no unnecessary muddying of the sound palette to create depth or texture; that is all expertly provided for in the masterful arrangements and selection of instrumentation. A far cry from the cluttered and unfocused mess that was three-piece Midaircondo’s Shopping for Images, Seawards unequivocally demonstrates that Sickoakes are a collection of musicians who love working together and naturally share one vision. Simply wonderful.
The initial 2000 copies of Seawards come packaged in a plusher than usual matte-laminated Type digipack, this time featuring a built in wallet that houses a double sided fold out poster.
Seawards is out now on Type.
