Release Date: Oct. 3, 2011
Montreal multi-instrumentalist Colin Stetson has released a third effort, an EP called Those Who Didn’t Run:. It’s a two-track sojourn to nowhere with noise providing the sights. Stetson is no stranger to this type of music. His previous releases, both full-lengths, New History Warfare, Vol. 1 and New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges are nothing but incongruent abstractions mostly belted out of a powerful bass saxophone, and this latest EP is falling right in line behind them.
Despite Stetson’s oddities musically, his work has garnished widespread recognition, which has manifested itself into playing sax for groups such as Arcade Fire, Bon Iver and The National, being among the top 10 nominated for the Polaris Music Award (an award given to the best full-length Canadian album independent of earnings or genre and based solely on artistic merit. Arcade Fire won it this year for The Suburbs.) in 2011 for his album Judges, and recently being chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at All Tomorrow’s Parties in England.
As usual, Those Who Didn’t Run is built on Stetson sending sounds orbiting around a central saxophone riff. And although totally unfamiliar, the noise is alluring, entrancing.
Title track “Those Who Didn’t Run” is characterized by a voluminous ocean of sound. A muddled bassline bounces rhythmically and cyclically builds up to an unnatural, spooky electrified sax, thrashing out of control, only to recede again, like the tide. Contrasting this abrasive assault is the smooth, haunted drone of a woman, crooning softly over the cries of the sax like a woman trying to sooth some enraged beast among the endless cosmos.
“The End of Your Suffering” is carried solely by an unrelenting, chaotic, jazz saxophone, howling in a hypnotizing spiral which occasionally climaxes into the strained sax screaming out in a sound similar to the roar of an elephant. As the song progresses, the breaks in between the repeated jazz riffs grow shorter until the track becomes one incessant tumbling of sax. And, as in “Those Who Didn’t Run,” late into the track, an emotionless hum plays intermittently over the swarming cluster of jumbling saxophone notes. In the final seconds of the track, the saxophone drops out and the album finishes with one final, monotone hum, and then the audio cuts out completely.
At times, the album can sound like an amplification of a flock of geese squawking on their way to Florida. And with both tracks spilling over into a 10th minute, the looping, rapid sax can become dizzying. But these are minor detractions. Stetson, without much variation or song structure creates engaging noise music that, artistically, is very satisfying.
Colin Stetson – Those Who Didn’t Run tracklist:
- “Those Who Didn’t Run”
- “The End of Your Suffering”
