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Uzi and Ari
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It Is Freezing Out
Crying Girl Records
Release: 2006
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Rated:
Review by:
Jason Warner
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The title track kicks it off with the obligatory clearing of the
throat in the microphone, and then some humming
accompanied by a nice piano ditty, a bit of an intro if you
will. Too much like Radiohead at times, too much like
Taught Me at others, and just the right amount of Uzi and Ari
at times, It Is Freezing Out is a departure from
the post rock wall of sound of the group's first release,
Don't Leave In Such A Hurry, which goes down
in my top 10 favorite albums of all time. The sounds are
great, the production is great, the songs are great, but
overall the album is more quiet than I am used to, not that
there is inherently anything wrong with that. If I'm in the
right mood this nice calm music is very soothing, whereas
Don't Leave In Such A Hurry would put me in
the mood even if I wasn't. The female vocals are nice and
the obvious influence experimental electronica master
Andrew Glassett (Nolens Volens), is present and pleasantly
accounted for. I love the artwork, so simple and
understated, and just plain cool.
My favorite song on It Is Freezing Out is
"Mountain/Molehill." I tend to get caught up on the "little"
aspects of the music, intricacies that capture my attention
and hold it. I must have listened to "Mountain/Molehill" 10
times today. What is the great little entrapment in this song
for me? The bass line. I love how the bass goes up to the
octave note in the second part of the phrase. Plus the bass
just sounds awesome on this track, and this song features
live drums, which most of the other songs on It Is
Freezing Out do not.
I enjoyed the keyboards, processed sounds, and
manipulated instrument sounds on the album, and I wonder
at how this is done. I play guitar driven rock music in my
own band, which is not exactly based on subtleties, nuances
or dynamics, all three of which Uzi and Ari seem to have sat
around and thought about for hours. I'm used to just hitting
record on the 4-track and whatever we sound like that day;
sloppy, drunk, pissed off, etc, that is how the recording
comes out… we don't bother trying to make it good, we just
release it with some hair on it. Uzi and Ari take a different
approach. They seem to have perfected the painstaking
task of putting the songs together and thinking about every
single thing they can to make the songs as good as they can
be. This took place on Don't Leave In Such A Hurry, and while It Is Freezing Out represents
quite a stylistic departure from the first album, this attention
to detail comes shining through again in spades. The milky
dreary sadness of the album is no doubt at least partly due
to the fact it was recorded over the months of one
particularly drab winter. That emotion of an overcast snowy
day is captured perfectly by the atmosphere in songs like
"Trainwreck," which also features the use of a toy piano and
mixes live and sampled drums.
"Don't Black Out" goes from Radiohead lullaby to sounding
more like Hum. This 'Hum' breakdown section begins at
3:37 and brings the song home. This song features an
awesome blending of live drums and drum
machine.
"Asleep in Armor" features female unison vocals and is very
sweet. It reminds me of the greatest band to ever come out
of Pocatello, ID, Timid Robot, a sort of combo between Sonic
Youth, The Cure and Joy Division. It's a great song and
probably the most similar track here to the songs found on
Don't Leave In Such A Hurry, with a nice post
rock build-up, climax, and then let down.
Uzi and Ari has been somewhat of a revolving door of
personnel over the last couple years and several of the
then/now members are multi-instrumentalists, so it is
difficult if not impossible to know who played what on
It Is Freezing Out. The liner notes don't give
any hints. Again, Glassett's electronic influence is an
obvious force on the new album and has taken Uzi and Ari to
a new place. However, Ben Shepard's harmony vocals with
his melody vocals remain the signature sound of Uzi and Ari.
Regardless of the musical style, as long as Ben's haunting
wail continues to harmonize with itself all will be well with the
world. I can't wait to see what the group offers us next.
There has been no official statement yet, but rumor has it
that Uzi and Ari have recently been signed to Own Records
out of Luxemburg and will be making a trip to Europe in the
near future. Good luck you sad sappy dramatists. |
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