Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Pirate Ship Quintet - The Pirate Ship Quintet


Artist: The Pirate Ship Quintet
Album: The Pirate Ship Quintet
Label: Sound Devastation
Year: 2007








Tracklist:
01. Lost Science
02. I Kina Spiser De Hund
03. Pirate Ship

Download
pass: lateralnoise.blogspot.com


For a relatively small country, the United Kingdom has laid claim to some of the most significant contributions toward the "post-rock" scene, namely 65daysofstatic, Blueneck, and of course, Mogwai. Although newcomers in the instrumental world, The Pirate Ship Quintet already have some impressively prestigious associates. Producer Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna), upon hearing the EP was so enamoured with it, he decided to add his talents to the mastering.

This high production quality is certainly evident on the EP. The instruments all have a clearly defined space to roam around in, a quality which is absolutely vital in a genre that relies so heavily on the layering of instruments. The strings and trumpet soar gracefully above the guitars, which, in keeping with traditional post-rock psyche, do not stray into the forbidden territory of solos/lead parts, allowing the bass to execute some delicious fretwork underneath.

The fact that one of the members plays with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is not surprising given the band's song structures, which flow with a steady orchestral grace. This influence is certainly evident in the opening track, "Lost Science." The song begins slowly, and serving as an introduction, with the instruments gradually adding themselves, one after the other to the mix like a more graceful, artistic warrior-mech assembling. The song then builds to a crescendo, and while the guitars are excellent in the quieter sections of the EP, in these parts they sound washed out and thin, and thus the build-up is not as engaging as one would like.

The following track, "I Kina Spiser Der Hund", opens with a doomy, Isis-like riff, complemented by metalcore-style screams. Unfortunately, instead of opening up a new dimension to the band’s sound, it turns the song into a game of spot-the-influence, and the tremolo picking that follows sounds like it was lifted straight out of an Explosions in the Sky album. The song eventually progresses into the quieter, quasi-orchestral territory of its predecessor, before returning to the opening riff. Unlike the flow of the first song, this sounds slightly disjointed.

Fortunately, this is not the case on the final song, "Pirate Ship." After a delicate beginning, the song builds into a mighty overture, backed by a thundering guitar riff. The dynamics are much better executed on this track, and while the song is heavily repetition-based, the song is constantly being driven forward, until it breaks into a sombre outro.

Although The Pirate Ship Quintet don’t do anything radically different to distinguish themselves from many post-rock bands, this EP will probably serve as a means of calibrating their techniques, and by incorporating influences from various bands, will gradually evolve into a sound of their own.(sonicfrontiers.net)


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1 comment:

nowhere ape said...

wrong pass, i can't extract :(