Lovingly pinched from Dusted Magazine: Standard issue post-rock isn’t usually this cinematic. Heists, dates, slasher flicks, the spaghetti western — the best of the canon’s tropes can be heard on Grails’ Deep Politics in pretty imitative counterpoint. And a lot of the credit, this time around at least, has to go to fifth man Timba Harris. In fact, I seriously doubt Grails’ four staff horsemen could have achieved this unique synthesis of sound and projected image were it not for Harris’ deft scoring.
A Seattle-based fiddler and composer, Harris performs and records with avant-rockers Secret Chiefs 3 and Master Musicians of Bukkake, as well as chairing more acoustic ensembles with singer-songwriters, like Terry Riley’s son Gyan. Grails’ 2008 high-water mark, Doomsdayer’s Holiday, while just as restless in regards to genre, lacked the cohesion and narrative — however implied — that you see with your ears here. And while I’m not sure what, if anything, Deep Politics has to say per se about the body politic — either on the surface or at a more systemic place — with eight meaty cuts like these, I’m not sure we should even give a shit. After all, politics is little more than the art of looking for trouble, Groucho Marx once said. But honestly, were it not for Harris’ compositional prodding, I don’t think Emil Amos, Alex Hall, Bill Slater or Wm. Zak Riles could’ve looked deep enough.
Continue reading: Dusted Reviews: Grails – Deep Politics.
Tags: Album of the day, Deep Politics, Dusted Magazine, Grails, Logan K. Young, Temporary Residence, Timba Harris
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