Crop Circles (06.09, Childhood Pet)
Byline: Do you know what a Polynya is? Read on.
For: Pram, Metric, Conifer Rock
"It's a Shame" by Talk Talk has a minute long intro that is one of the coolest moments in musical history. It could stand alone as a stop-gap between 80's new-wave and early 90's post-rock, but of course this is early Talk-Talk so before you know it they begini launching into one of their languished new wave ballads. I mention this because Polynya fall a similar trajectory. A killer intro that is rife with some cereberal experimentation that recall early nineties luminaries Cul-de-Sac or Pram before launching to into a pure mediocrity. Phoned in deadpan Male-Female vocals compete for who can sound more bored in a single track. Non-professionalism has nevert really bugged me. I live for crudely recorded limited run CD-R's. But when a band consciously works against rather than with their limited budgets a serious aesthetic lapse in principles has occured. If there is one thing that saves this album from a single listen is their use of live and electronic percussion towards the beginning and end of each track. This floating percussion augment the heavily processed guitar work that is reminiscant of TOME favs Conifer Rock. Experimentalism can only go so far however, and when your bread and butter monotone male-female vocals over reverb drenched guitars thing isn't working too well, it is best to go all in. I wish I could hear a whole album worth of intros to "Ribbon Dragon" and "Fan Fiction", but like all ok songs with great intros, conventions are the biggest thorn in the side. "It's a Shame" really.
Ok! You made it to the end of this review! A Polynya is: an open area of water surrounded by sea ice! They are also a band from Chapel Hill, NC who have an album out called Crop Circles.
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