Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Go to the Pelican website  Pelican - s/t [Hydra Head Records - 2003]

Birds are usually beautiful, majestuous, light and they fly with much grace. Pelicans are birds (more precisely: large web-footed fish-eating birds with a very large bill and distensible gular pouch) but ain’t very graceful and look kinda odd. However they fly. The band certainly don’t. They will more likely fall from a seven storey building and crush anything that is below than taking off. But that is the way I like them.

Hydrahead is not known for being a label that likes feather-light bands. Between Knut, Atomsmasher, early Cave In, Keelhaul and so on, they assembled a good bunch of loud bands. Pelican is the latest addition, and boy, do they not look pale compared to the rest of the roster... This instrumental untitled ep was first self-released one year ago. It would have been criminal not to release it on a wider scale.

Now you know we are talking loud music, I have to say: what kind of loud? Pelican is heavy, tuned down, trance inducing. It is a mix between early-Swans, Melvins, Earth, Isis, Khanate and Neurosis. In a way... Many people hear Mogwai too.

As punishing as Godflesh, the quartet crafts entrancing, bleak and even mean ambiences. As much as Michael Gira’s music, the songs are very repetitive. Not in a bad way: it’s more a case of being stubborn and going against the damn wind at all costs rather than being monotonous. Their seems to be an urge to deploy one’s wings and take off to go deeper into the blackest, dirtiest instincts of man and corners of the world.

All ain’t nice in the world that Pelican’s music depicts. The listener will feel a burden on his/her shoulder. But instead of leaving this load behind, he/she will become as one with Pelican.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

François Monti
Latest Reviews

Pelican - s/t
Birds are usually beautiful, majestuous, light and they fly with much grace. Pelicans are birds (more precisely: large web-footed fish-eating birds with a ve...
290324   Stuart Argabright & AfterAfte...
290324   Piranha - Piranha(DVD)
280324   Typhoon Club - Typhoon Club(B...
270324   Jerzy Skolimowski Collection ...
260324   Latex Choker - Sealed
260324   Occlusion - 59: No Input Wall
260324   Nihil Impvlse - Anabasis
260324   Marta Forsberg - Sjunger För...
260324   The New Boy - The New Boy( Th...
250324   The Stargazer’s Assistant - ...
Latest Articles

The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H...
Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
280324   The Music of Clay Ruby & Buri...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom