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Graves To Sur With Love music review
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Graves To Sur With Love
Hush Records
Greg Olin, lead singer and solid member to the Portland, Oregon band,
along
with its revolving members, has put together To Sur With Love (Hush
Records,
2005), a placid, leaves-in-the-breeze album that goes where it’s coaxed
and
takes you along with it. A serious combination of samba, grand
instrumentalisation and whimsical French tones.
Track listing:
01 Honeypot
02 Touch The Sun
03 Touchdown
04 Sing A Song
05 Deep Space Team
06 Not Any More At Night
07 Putting On A Dumbspell
08 Bleed
09 Rover In A Household
10 China
11 Headphone Parade
12 Give Me Your Spit
13 York Roberts
This is not relaxed music, but rather meditative, with inquisitive
musical
additions to both provoke and mind and encourage it. At times it can
come
across jazzy, but most of the time it’s the kind of music that plays
overhead at a bistro, or favoured coffee shop.
This album takes time to sink in and permeate the mind and soul because
it
has also equally taken the time to be created, that totally out to four
years of collaboration. Listed as part avant-garde, it is
understandable
where that plays in, with tricky instrument combinations and
off-the-cuff
ideas and techniques.
Sur is the third release from Graves, having released Yes Yes Okay Okay
(Hush) in 2004, and Love, Love, Love (Film Guerrero) in early 2003.
Sadly,
the band hasn’t taken off quite as well as they should. High quality
lo-fi
folk music is on the rise, but somehow Graves were passed over. Here’s
another chance.
Olin himself has a unique voice, sounding tired, lullabye-gentle and
wavering upon Dylan’s influential waves all at once. The lyrics are
forbearing, and honest enough to have been thought up on the spot, or
at the
very moment and event of its origination.
Key tracks can’t be picked out on this one. Each one is distinctive in
Olin’s approach and internal message, and therefore the entire album is
worth all the time. It’s innovative, experienced and so different that
there
isn’t a comparison of traits; they are all their own individual works
of
art. (Although come to think of it, "China" is reminiscent of Lennon’s
"Working Class Hero" with a rough and nearly bitter drawl.)
Sur is an album of special quality that takes a special person to
appreciate
its creativity and exploration of the senses. A true indie album
indeed;
flying under the radar but traveling just as far.
