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10:
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timeless/perfect
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9 to 9.9:
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significant past 10 years
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8 to 8.9:
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significant past 5 years
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7 to 7.9:
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memorable
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6 to 6.9:
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standard playlife
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5 to 5.9:
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good for now
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4 to 4.9:
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will get a few playthroughs
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3 to 3.9:
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won't intentionally listen to this
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2 to 2.9:
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strongly avoid it
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1 to 1.9:
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no reason to ever listen to this
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0.1 to 0.9:
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rage-inducing
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0:
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no merit whatsoever.
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 Sharks and Sailors
"Builds Brand New" (CD)
released in 2008
Label: self-released
http://www.sharksandsailors.com/
The beauty in the odd time signatures and stop-start dynamics of math rock/post-punk/whatever it's called these days is that the system the song is built on is not immediately apparent. Other genres, like folk, hip-hop and country, gain their pleasure from the assured execution of a preconceived formula. The song structures, especially with folk, are based on the tried and true traditional sounds hammered at for centuries by performers taking a familiar composition and tweaking it slightly to meet their socio-economic needs. The habit of underground rock bands to embrace polyrhythms, combining non-4/4 time signatures and complimentary dissonance began in the '80s, though it's for diehards of luminaries like Slint, Fugazi and Breadwinner to fight over who pioneered it. It is kind of silly to argue over who decided to take advantage of centuries-old musical conventions, though. The modern classical repertoire presages mathematical post-punk with a fuck-you attitude that pressed for whole-tone scales, 12-tone rules and rhythms that refuse to find a groove. Though bloated prog rock sullied the concept of embracing musical concepts for their own sake, artists like John Zorn brought punk attitude to mathematically precise songs that use on-a-dime tonal shifts to reflect the tightly-wound energy of dealing with personal demons and anxieties.
Though Hoover, Cul de Sac and Don Caballero flew the flag for what's commonly called (despite the derision of Chavez's Matt Sweeney) math rock into the '90s, emo happened. They liked Drive Like Jehu and loved their Karate records, but their girlfriends just broke up with them so, y'know. It's hard to equate the poppier post-hardcore bands nowadays with the ragged, sludgy, jazz-obsessed bands that preceded them, but something survived, thanks to metal. As it always (sometimes to its detriment) embraced chops over songwriting, metal heads found sanctuary in playing 5/4 solos over 7/16 rhythms. Those teens ended up in bands like Botch and Coalesce, highlights of the '90s wave of extreme bands that plowed through metal songs with the energy and attitude of hardcore. As bands like that seemed to reach a zenith with what was humanly possible to play, it's no surprise the members ended up in poppier, melodic bands like Minus the Bear and the Casket Lottery.
The Casket Lottery, which consisted of two former bass players for Coalesce, are important in respect to Sharks and Sailors, who seem to have finally been mentioned in this review. If there's ever a clear reference point for this band from Texas, it's the Midwestern trio. Both balance ultra-melodic guitar with throat-shredding screams, utilizing metal chops without calling attention to themselves. King Crimson, this is not.
Builds Brand New is an accomplished record, combining male/female vocal trade-offs, instrumental songs and long instrumental passages that shift from soothing to abrasive. The raw metal of the instrumental "Rickshaw" is played off the mellow, jangly "In the Sandbox", though the latter climaxes with a mountain of distortion. "Thrill" opens the record with a song that harkens back to '80s indie rock with its almost R.E.M.-style melody and lightly strummed distorted guitars that explode into quasi-metal riffs, all intensity and blunt edges that are cut through with a dreamy chorus. There's some obligatory "are we done with this riff? No. Yes. Just kidding...no. Okay one more time, but backwards" messing around but they don't detract from the songs as a whole.
"Condor", the lengthy instrumental closer, is a slow building prog epic that ebbs and flows like a symphony. Anthemic riffs dissolve into ambient textures without losing the main two-note motif. Near the closing couple of minutes it seems like the whole song is going to repeat, but another riff is thrown in, slightly different than before, illustrating another unexpected turn that makes this debut full-length all the more enjoyable.
Review written on 2008/09/08 by Matthew Austin
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