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Rating: I was just about to compile the list of the best of the year, trying to avoid the usual and unforgivable omissions, when suddenly a band comes forward, capable of shaking everything up and disrupting the precarious balance on which my personal playlist has always rested. The 31Knots from Portland, with this third work of theirs, very difficult of course, "Talk Like Blood," have, better to say it right away and without mincing words, surprised and thrilled me like I hadn't experienced in a long time, forcing me to frantically search for their previous recordings. The trio, consisting of Joe Haege, guitar and vocals, Jay Pellicci, drums, and Jay Winebrenner, on bass, who with this album moved to the meritorious record label Polyvinyl, could be categorized as "indierock," but that would be a way to gracefully get out of trouble, avoiding writing in the designated box a long and composite word like a magic formula. Because the group's references are many, and all, starting with Fugazi, demonstrate their varied and commendable musical formation.
However, do not think of it as a simple "pastiche," of dwarves riding, more or less deservingly, on the shoulders of giants. The strength of 31Knots is their ability to still express a personal and exciting sound, masterfully keeping together, thanks to a sincere inspiration and a grasp typical of true talent, all the elements present. The musical pendulum of the Portland trio swings between spleen and energy; indeed, the quintessence of their music is a sort of oxymoron: a melancholic positivity, a joy of shipwrecks, one might say, evoking the poet. The journey is one that is unforgettable: "City Of Dust" is chilling, an unthinkable combination of mild industrial rhythms and pastel melodies, almost like a music box, seasoned with skewed guitar riffs. With "Hearsay" our friends "knead" a "police-like" reggae with indie-rock guitars: an unstoppable crescendo, made even more captivating by Haege's vocal skills. There's also Prog, never an end in itself and wisely "bastardized" as in the title track; the math-rock that prevails, as in the superb "Chain Reaction," a potential single. But I don't want to strip you of all the surprises; therefore, I will avoid being too didactic.
However, know that in each of the eleven tracks emerge overwhelmingly the passion, technical skill, taste for hybridization and, above all, the sense of balance of the Portland guys. Such qualities shield them from neo-progressive drifts or narcissistic excesses and bring them closer to much more celebrated bands like the Mars Volta. Along with the Highlands and the icy Canadian steppes, the arid plateaus of Oregon are becoming another of my favorite destinations.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Hearsay (03:59)
Come close and tiptoe
Whisper simplistic
Like chalk on sidewalk
Over and over
This is all just hearsay
Placid attachments
War torn embracing
Over and over
See teeth just gnashing
Blueblood on blackboard
Swallow a mouthful
Over and over
With the world falling down at a pace that breaks us
Rolling like the credits that end again
We really needed to believe in this
Derivative irrelevant smoke and mirrors
No more maybe I'm numb, baby
No more hanging pressure in the air so calm
Your honor will they hear me over all that laughter
Mummy and daddy I see the pretty gavels
They will make all the choices for me
I simply move to the pace of angels
I don't swagger, I just dangle
Why is this so difficult?
Because I can't see
Why is this so difficult?
Because I can't breathe
This is just transition, nothing more
Watching the world dumb down to an all-time low
And I was stuck in a steady surveillance
of an outpost of ingrates
locked down and uptight
destined to makeshift
directions to sunset
many more moments
were more mal intentioned
so maybe they're winning
with wisdom we wanted
so be it sophia
your glamour is gone
So we surrendered, in silence still hoping
Hoping, still hoping they're that then and nothing more
Over and over
Over and over
Over and over
Over!
05 Chain Reaction (06:05)
He was text and traffic
Aiding abetting the bouts I'd turned into doubts
I could've taken him out or waited it out
It's all the same to me
I could've called his bluff or fucked him up
It's all the same to me
But strange are the days of our twisted fate
Hurting him was like hurting me
So I knelt down and I kissed the ground
Like a channel for the circuitry
It was a chain reaction
That I had broken but not abandoned
A chain reaction
With one provision that I'm the variable
And the decimals jumped in space, raping the database
Slitting the wrist of my statistics
But strange are the days of our twisted fate
Hurting him was like hurting me
My cause is different than yours
And result speak louder than words
Come now all aborted thoughts
Come now one and all
Come and glitch this new routine
Come make me feel safer
When in doubt deduce the doubt
To luxury and live without
Memory will be your sickness
I will sign the dotted line
Cross my Ts and hope to die
Illegibility is my witness
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