True Colour of Blood – All Of The True Things I’m About To Tell You Are Lies

True Colour of Blood – All Of The True Things I’m About To Tell You Are Lies (2008)

Dark ambient is a peculiar genre of music. Generally, it involves extended sections of sound that capitalize on a texture, tone or concept with very little movement. Atmosphere is the name of the game; certainly not not traditional rock song structure or radio-friendly lyricism. The best musicians in this vein are able to pull off creepy movie soundtrack tunes without coming off as cheesy or conjuring images of trick-or-treaters. Thankfully, All Of The True Things I’m About To Tell You Are Lies is a well-crafted and hypnosis-inducing album that ambient music fans will enjoy.

Lies opens with the sparse but dense Upon These Shores, a 4-minute track that could serve as an introduction to ambient music as a whole. First-time ambient listeners will notice each track melts and blends into each other, so the roughly 75 minute album comes off as one large piece with several large movements — one aspect of ambient albums I love. What makes any body of atmospheric music worth experiencing is a variety of sound. Lies delivers. The 16-minute track Of has some truly ethereal, subtly swirling soundscapes; Once Was Blind But Now I’m Deaf is a little harsher with yawning choral sounds; the titular ending track is surprisingly upbeat and reminiscent of a darker Saxon Shore. OK, not that upbeat.

It likely goes without saying, but if you’re new to ambient music, don’t expect musical hooks or even an underlying beat. Lies is stark and minimalist from beginning to end. According to TCoB’s Myspace page, guitarist Eric Kesner relies solely on guitars to create massive, pad-like walls of reverberating sound — an accomplishment worth noting in 2010, where an iPod is capable of producing dance beats and recreating sounds of old synths. I do suspect some digital trickery in a few tracks, notably the second track’s random blasts of white noise…unsettling and unexpected while wearing headphones, to say the least.

Succinctly: Lies is an extremely patient and deliberate exploration of sound a la Brian Eno on tranquilizers. Not nearly as dark as the title would suggest — I’d wager Lustmord and Tim Hecker are much darker — but perfectly at home on a dreary winter day with a book.

Get a taste of TCoB at its Myspace page.

~ by switty on January 12, 2010.