Joshua Treble — Five points fincastle
Boggs lives in Cincinnati and makes one half of the fantastic Désormais. The other half is Mitchell Akiyama, the Canadian behind Intr_version, the label releasing this brand new Treble album. Intr_version is alabel you should really keep an eye on, having released the two Désormais albums as well as the latest Ghislain Poirier full-length (check the review in our archive). And once again, the artwork is great…
But what is a nice artwork if the music shite? Nothing, bro, nothing… Fear not: the sounds assembled inside this glossy cardboard are, if I may say, quite good. Not earth-shattering good, but good enough for me. And for you. Yes, yes, yes.
If an artist reminds you of Fennesz or Oval, then your bound to expect some beautiful, gorgeous music, although a bit on the complex side. Well, being nice and sweet and beautiful is not that difficult (or so it seems), but being really nice, really sweet and really beautiful, well, it’s something else. And at times (actually more often than not), Five points fincastle is that proverbial “something else”. It sure is on The distance between us in km, actually a Désormais production, a 11 minutes plus long “epic” of sorts with some beautiful guitar and strings sounds processed, digitally fused together, glitchened up, soft as the morning wind (as a bad poet would say). Makes me think that my girlfriend in 100 km away. On I was there for the last kiss but never saw the ambulance leave, Joshua Treble welcomes a guest singer Jenna Robertson (Avia Gardner). The song sounds like a folk band trying to play while being held captive by some animated laptop. Stranded is a fine example of how Boggs’ music can be so multi-layered while never being really complex, or difficult to grasp. A sort of glitchy Stars of the lid song, it can only be a good thing.
Joshua Treble’s landscapes have some quality: evocative, beautiful, delicate, ethereal… Very enjoyable although people who are heavily into that kind of music will regard it as being reserved for lazy mornings only. I love lazy mornings…