First album review: The Giant Pin

The Nels Cline Singers – The Giant Pin (2006)

It’s rare to find a group of musicians skilled at the art of tastefully crafted melodies, memorable themes and progressions and outright sonic destruction. At times, the group reminds me of a modern King Crimson circa late 60s and early 70s with stronger jazz influences instead of the folksy English background. There is enough material in these 73 minutes to make you reconsider what can be done with guitar, bass and drums.

The second in The Nels Cline Singers’ officially released canon, The Giant Pin is quite difficult to put into words. Veteran guitarist Nels Cline, along with percussionist Scott Amendola and Devin Hoff on upright bass, create delicate and sometimes somber patterns (as in “Something About David H.” and “Watch Over Us”) as well as structured anarchy (“Fly, Fly” and “Square King”). Even though the skill levels of each member is quite apparent, no one ever steals the spotlight. Even during extended freakout guitar explosions, crashing cymbals and organic/solid bass complete the atmosphere and mood. “Blues, Too,” the album’s opener, is a good example of the solid rhythmic connection among each member: meandering bass, a playful and traipsing jazz guitar and subtle yet driving drums don’t warn you about the next tune, a seven-minute avant garde exercise in making noise musical.

Longstanding Cline fans know that he is a genius not only at song composition but also with his various tools to create shades and textures throughout a song. Flavors of distorted, twisted and almost piano-like clean tones are mixed with professional precision in “He Still Carries a Torch for Her” and “Something About David H.” travels through exposition, climax and resolution flawlessly, building up and releasing emotion and tension creating a feeling almost as if the Singers are reading the most heartfelt story you’ve ever heard to you in person. Seriously – listen to this with headphones in a dark room and if your throat doesn’t close up, you probably don’t have a soul.

If you’re seeking something different, seek The Nels Cline Singers. I also recommend Instrumentals and Draw Breath very highly, but if you have to choose one (if only for the time being), make it The Giant Pin. It’s tough to pigeonhole the Singers into one genre, so I’ll create one: fucking awesome.

~ by switty on April 13, 2008.