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Hotel Womb - For Fans of the Church
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REVIEWS of Untitled #23 / Coffee Hounds / Pangaea ep
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Re: REVIEWS of Untitled #23 / Coffee Hounds / Pangaea ep
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Dugster
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Jun 1 09 4:18 AM
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http://godonnybrook.com/home/?p=3037
By Rev. Theodore Marley Renwick-Renwick • May 30th, 2009
Most Likely To: warm an old soul's heart.
It will probably come as a surprise to many to discover that The Church is even still around. They were bred in the same global post-punk Petri dish that spawned such early 1980s guitar hero outfits as U2, R.E.M., Echo and the Bunnymen, Big Country, and The Smiths-bands that drew on the energy of punk while possessing no desire whatsoever to actually play punk. They helped slap down a serious bid on the part of new wave fops to make the synthesizer the predominant instrument in rock music, re-cementing the guitar's claim to that position once and for all (at least until ProTools) while setting the template for most of the indie-rock which would follow for the next two decades.
But while other bands of their generation went on to conquer the world in various ways, shapes and forms, The Church more or less remained stalled in cult band territory, at least as far as the U.S. was concerned. Public awareness of the Aussie combo reached its pinnacle in the States in the late '80s, when they became the only act in history to actually benefit from an association with Waddy Wachtel and unleashed a trilogy of reasonably sublime Wachtel-produced college radio hits with "Under the Milky Way," "Reptile," and "Metropolis." They then receded back into cult status where they've resided ever since, paid attention to by the faithful but hardly anyone else.
This state of affairs has always seemed to be just ducky with The Church. While the aforementioned trio of tunes, along with others such as "The Unguarded Moment" or "Electric Lash," showed that the band could toss off pop gems any time they damn well pleased, for the most part they've been more concerned with following their muse wherever it leads than cashing in. Despite their name, they've never shared U2's desire to be the salvation of mankind, nor the Bunnymen's urge to drive a stake through God's heart. While frontman Steve Kilbey was blessed from the start with rock star charisma to spare, and the band's duo of guitar monsters Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper have proved on numerous occasions that they could spin guitar lines as hypnotic as any dreamed up by Peter Buck, Johnny Marr or the Edge, they've chosen to deploy those weapons in the service of texture, atmosphere, and mood rather than poptones.
Perhaps more than any other band, the Church has managed to synthesize both eras of Pink Floyd into a single package-they combine the more concise songcraft of the Barrett era with the sonic explorations of Gilmour/Waters albums like Wish You Were Here and Animals. This is intended as high praise, and it's arguably a hell of a lot more than the Floyd themselves ever managed to do.
As a whole, The Church's career has been remarkably consistent. They've never released an entirely bad album, although the bulk of their output in the '90s could charitably be described as less good, coasting overmuch on mood and atmosphere at the expense of memorable songs. The 1999 covers album A Box of Birds seemed to ignite a new sense of purpose in the group, and they've been on a sustained creative upturn ever since.
That ascending arc reaches a new pinnacle on Untitled #23, as the Church weave a spell of psychedelic mystery through a solid set of tunes. The hooks may not be as immediate as they were on "Reptile" or "Metropolis," but they are definitely present and work their way into the brain like earwigs with repeated listens. Opening track "Cobalt Blue" layers Egyptian atmospherics over a martial drumline in what feels like a distant cousin to Radiohead's "Pyramid Song." "Pangea," "Sunken Sun," and "Happenstance" likewise build swells of swirling drones and mood, while "Deadman's Hand" and "Space Saviour" bring the rock. Koppes and Willson-Piper coax the properly enchanting tones out of their guitars that the material calls for, alternately chiming, roaring or droning when called for. Kilbey is in fine voice throughout-one even gets the impression that his lyrics might be worth deciphering if listening to them were really the point.
But it's not; the point is a veteran band with its roots in a bygone era proving it's still relevant today and maybe even at the peak of its powers. In a career field where dropping dead at the age of 27 is considered to be a praiseworthy accomplishment, it's just a little inspiring to see a band that's been around longer than that operating at this high a level.
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