good review here:
As the now distantly remembered chillwave thing has given way to the more ham-handed '80s anachronism that's been going around, we hear a lot about bands that shimmer and pulse. So I'm reluctant to say that what the War on Drugs does shimmers, even though it surely has its own bright, if bristly, sheen. The difference with this band, though, is that they are first and foremost an excellent rock band. Their new record, Slave Ambient, is an expansive statement from beginning to end. It taps into folk, blues, and rock traditions with knowledge, skill and confidence, but it also coats those traditions in very modern layers, clattered and blipping and confused, even as its sound pumps with hot blood and its melodies glide sweetly.
What the War on Drugs does is a more convincing shimmer (yeah, fine, I said it about them) and that rises out of how they develop a landscape. Like the sonic folk road trip of Wagonwheel Blues or the haunting space and textures of the Future Weather EP, there is a propulsion to these songs. If front man and arranger Adam Granduciel uses synthesizers and keyboards with wild abandon, there's still a radial hum churning away under them. "Best Night," the album's opener melts the warm strum of acoustic guitar with the airy atmospherics and the effect is striking, even if we've heard it from the band before.
These songs don't want to leave the turf, they don't soar upwards so much as they spread across the land. The epic "Your Love is Calling My Name" also recalls things we've heard from the band before -- the fiery drum machine, guitars layered into some obscured wall of sound -- but yet it feels fresh. The lines assert themselves as the song moves, straightening into krautrock repetitions working against the looser "Touch of Grey"-sounding keys. More than its predecessors, this record plays disparate parts against each other, and if the results seem similar its because the band's sound has enough depth that it doesn't need radical reinvention to keep our interest. But more than that, these sonic tensions make for songs that resonate deeper. Though the layers cohere, they fight to do so, and to hear it happen is exciting at every turn.
Never one to rest on what he's already done, Granduciel does stretch his chops here and, in doing so, produces some of the best work on the record. The roadhouse stomp of "I Was There" clears out the static clutter but doesn't miss its chance to thread beautiful guitar lines over its dusty shuffle. "Brothers", a carry-over from Future Weather, gets reshaped here as a thick dream-pop gem from its country ballad beginnings. Closer "Blackwater" is the band's finest moment here, taking the darker textures they explored on their last EP but tightened them up into a bittersweet storm.
Slave Ambient continues themes of wanderlust and searching that were all over the other records, but as Granduciel sings of friends gone, of calling loved ones home, of trying to find his place in the world changing around him, the music behind him seems to be searching too. And in the gems it finds, it braces his longing on the record with a hope that, however long this road goes on, however long the tires whine and the dust kicks up off the back of the car, however many friends come and go, it'll all end where it is supposed to. Granduciel isn't undone by searching, he is strengthened by it. And as you follow him along the the textured, wonderfully arranged path he's laid out, you're bound to find it just a fruitful as he does. - Matthew Fiander
Granduciel posted this one up on the TWOD blog as a review he liked:
http://thedecibeltolls.com/the-war-on-d ... e-ambient/and here is one that basically calls it trippy road music, which I think is a perfect descriptor and concisely explains why I like the sound so much:
Elliot Sharp at Philadelphia Weekly Wrote:
Like the best American rock music, this road-bent and wandering spirit is expressed in Drugs’ music. Their 2009 debut, Wagonwheel Blues , summoned images of migrant workers and vagabonds, and told stories of hard travelin’ and livin’ on the run.
This rambling spirit returns on Slave Ambient, and as with Wagonwheel, many critics are throwing around the phrase
“road music.” Given its propulsive rhythms and joyous highway vibes, along with Adam’s nonstop touring, it makes sense. But there’s more to Slave Ambient than restless rootlessness, something Granduciel calls “the other side of Drugs.”
Jeff Zeigler, who’s worked with Kurt Vile, Pattern Is Movement, Clockcleaner and many other Philly bands, produced Slave Ambient at his studio, Uniform Recordings. One goal was to clearly articulate this “other side,” namely the
hypnotic drones and loops that underlie the new songs.
“These aspects have been overlooked by people working on Adam’s songs,” Zeigler says. “They were misconceived as incidental or it was misunderstood how the drones worked in the context of traditional rock. They’re meant to take the songs into far dreamier territory, adding a surreal depth where you can really get lost.”
An avid home-recorder for more than a decade, Granduciel has amassed countless hours of soundscapes and tones. The title for one such drone he’d returned to for the past four years was “Slave Ambient,” which ultimately became the album title.
The drone runs through the middle of the album with the triple-punch combo of “Your Love Is Calling My Name,” “The Animator,” and “Come to the City.” It delicately flutters at first and then expands, sonically evolving into a robust foundation for the instrumentation. The lush soundscape’s liberated on “The Animator,” where its colorful textures meet a reverb-soaked sax, and then it reconnects with the band on “Come to the City.”
This isn’t traditional road-rock. The “other side of Drugs” is an experimental one that builds more on Krautrock bands like Neu and Tangerine Dream than Dylan or Springsteen. But it’s finding the perfect balance between these two tendencies—Americana/rock songwriting and sonic experimentation—while also expressing a unique voice that Drugs have realized on Slave Ambient .
“I love sitting at home and making beautiful soundscapes,” Granduciel says, “but I also enjoy writing songs. Finding ways to meld the two is cool, and when it works, I think it works fairly well. It’s all about admitting you’re part of a lineage but also finding ways to separate yourself that feel genuine.”
Read more:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news- ... z1VLpGXiBThard copy came out on Tuesday. I'm heading to Grimey's tomorrow to pick up my copy and spend some time with it.
