Adam Busch I last heard from in 2003 with Manishevitz’ City Life and boy, what a record that was. Let’s take a moment to take that one in…
Did Adam do anything in the interim? 2003-2010? I don’t know. Google it. I’m here to talk about Sonoi. Manishevitz were one of the best bands I didn’t rock-write and I reviewed a lot of stinkers between 2002-2008. Out of semi-retirement to specifically rock-write this. At the end of the final paragraph you will have to decide whether you think my taste in music is ace or filth (exciting way with words notwithstanding).
So Sonoi, right?
Direct from Chicago, the epicentre of avant garde, and also a lot of avant garbage. Sonoi deal the realness. They are leaner than Manishevitz —down from four to three and you can kind of hear that there’s more air unaccounted for here. Less sax-pumping Television-style rock and roll, fewer guitar solos, more hypnotic drones, muted trumpets (horns in Busch-related projects are always remarkable), discretely-deployed synthesizers and guitars that glisten like glazed architecture.
I’m tracing the origins of this and it’s a pain in the patootie, its making me work (in a good way), and I’m rewarded for my hard work by the simple fact that this is actually beautifully-original post-rock. Radiohead for people who think the vocal stylings of Radiohead are anemic whiny and twattish among other things. I’m thinking of someone like the Red Krayola.
Try a tune like Sherry Fall, a gem-cornered melody sitting somewhere between the sublime and the weird flicker you find on RK albums such as Hazel. The pleasure principle of pop permeating its fine lines. Eva Baton kicks so much patootie you’re left thinking how can a songform be expressed so smoothly. The cutely named ‘Cat and The Barbie’ is an introspective piano-banging pub-rocker. Listen and love it. Clouds satisfies late-period Sonic Youth fans and with its Fourth of July reference, Fourth of July by Galaxie 500, natch (lyrical snatch: “Clouds over your shoulder/ I was useless in the heat” —). There’s an eleven minute postpunker (‘Anchor Tattoo’) that takes its time and if you’re anything like me you don’t realize it’s eleven minutes until there’s only seconds remaining. I listened to it twice before I realized this. Now that’s what I call impressive execution.
Chances are you haven’t heard of these fellers. Do you think the name throws people off their scent? What would a Sonoi even smell like? Not pertinent questions in the rock arena I’m sure. Heck if we knew what half the things we liked in rock and roll smelled like, we would keep our distance. I would like to talk in detail about this album in the same way I want to discuss good books, but I gotta go do something less constructive like stretch my lumbar region.
