Rat Columns-Another Day

It took them long enough, but it seems Rat Columns have finally embraced the fact that they pop band. Ten seconds into "Another Day" is all the confirmation you need to know that it is perfect guitar pop. More than that, it's perfect melancholic, "plucked straight from a rainy city in the UK during the '80s" jangle pop. The saccharine, perfectly reverbed guitar notes. The guiding, ever present bass in the background. The shimmering yet sad synth lines that follow the song throughout. They all meld together so, so well into this beautifully sweet & sad song; something The Pains of Being Pure at Heart would create in a parallel universe. Band mastermind David West might deliver his vocals in a monotone, but the specks of sadness are present in his delivery, for anyone who truly listens. "Another Day" ends with a frantic and almost noisy guitar solo that manages to blend perfectly into the song, speaking to how sublime of a piece of pop Rat Columns have crafted here. Which is a wonderful because Rat Columns made some truly wonderful songs on their debut Sceptre Hole, which far too few people heard. Somehow though, everything West did on that album has been refined to perfection with "Another Day", and the result is nothing short of heavenly.



Links:

Rat Columns' Tumblr
Pre-order Leaf soon here, from R.I.P. Society

Album Review: Rat Columns-Sceptre Hole

Rat Columns' debut album is a difficult one, but not in the standard ways an album is usually viewed as "difficult". It doesn't have an excess amount of noise or purely random moments. Instead, Sceptre Hole twists the core of the band's sound from song to song in such a way that it keeps the listener on their toes as to what the album will come back with next. It's dizzying without being disorienting.

To be fair, I don't think any listener would have expected such a sharp change to occur with Rat Columns. What was a one-man band creating simple, bedroom and indie rock filtered post-punk, has now greatly expanded into an actual three piece band that in turn has greatly expanded the band itself. Gone is the sense of minimalism that shaped the band's 7". Instead, the band crafts a type of noise infused jangle pop that they are able to reform into all kinds of different ways. Compare the jagged-ness, fuzzy, indie rocker "Death is Leaving Me" to the Minks like swirl of "Ashes of a Rose" and it takes a second to realize it's the same band crafting both songs. However, the record never feels like it was just pieced or thrown together. Rather Rat Columns use a sense of darkness to connect everything together into a nice neat package. Haunting instrumentals are used to open and close both sides of the LP, paired along with Gothic cover art and song titles allow for these sensations to creep in slowly. In turn the band is able to create something like the Phil Elvrum channeling "Summer Thighs" and noise rock of "Dying Days" without creating dissonance. The whole album melds together perfectly, despite each song being able to jump out at you when you least expect it.

I'm listening to Sceptre Hole again, like I have intermediately for about the past month. And it seems appropriate that it's take me that long to fully digest this album. It's an album full of so many different varying twists and turns that you find new aspects to a song only after the fourth or more listen. Sceptre Hole is an album that reviles itself slower than you think, but the end result is completely worth it. One of the best growers of the year, in every positive sense imaginable.





Links:

Rat Columns' Tumblr
Buy Sceptre Hole here, from Smart Guy Records

Single Review: Rat Columns-S/T 7"

I'm going to stop mentioning whether bands are from Australia. It's just too much of an early give away of how great the music is. Everything seems to be pure gold from that continent, and when it may seem like the bands might start to deform all into the same sound, something comes along removes any sense of encroaching overwrote similarity. Case in point with Rat Columns.

Rat Columns is the solo work of David West. If that name sound unfamiliar, it's to be expected due to West being a member of the equally under appreciated Rank/Xerox. That post-punk connection sort of sets the stage for what comes out these grooves. From the simple yet stark cover art, the solitude and loneliness of the music is instantly presented. Which is helped by the single itself, which manages to smoothly showcase the various forms that West's music takes.

It opens with the simple "I Wonder", as a few sparse drum beats over equally sparse guitar lines. I've heard a few comparisons to The Clean's take on post-punk as a good jump off point for what's happening in Rat Column's ;music and parts of that can be picked up on and really bond well with the music. More so though, it sounds like a darker, yet sonically reduced Fresh and Onlys. case in point when the next two songs come on. "Keep Waiting" is a nice 90 degree turn, a noisy synth tune with vocals so low you have to strain your ears to pick them up. It's quite lovely, evoking little touches of New Order. Then the complete 180 occurs with "Glass Coffin", clearly bringing to mind the menace of Blue Water White Death's "Song for the Greater Jihad", a single deformed instrument becoming more unhinged with the vocals as the song progresses. Then the return an ironic turn back to the original form with "Darkness", a high point of ringing guitar notes coming together to one of the catchiest moments on the single. The entire 7" is very effortless, simple and not something I was expecting in my inbox. Another superbe night time single.

Stream: Rat Columns-I Wonder


Links:
Rat Columns on Myspace
Buy the 7" here, from Smartguy Records