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

Grails - Take refuge in clean living [Important Records - 2008]

Take refuge in clean living sees this US five piece instrumental collective step out  from their post rock/ doom metallic label to present an album that’s embraces and mixers many genres together in a high conducive, epic and accomplished manner. 

With a larger display of instrumental colour too to fill out and detail their sound and atmospheres. We have on board; synths, piano, guitars, tapes, vibes, harpsichord, harmonium, strings and horns. Opening the album up we have Stoned at the Taj Again which enters with a Morse code tone smothering bass tone which gives birth to  wondering bass licked  rock groove underlit by Easter promise, with the great Pink Floyd like peaks and valleys with some great bluesy guitar licks and synth swirls and Hoovers in the drifting moments and when it rocks it really ups the pace with great thundering percussion and the guitar having an almost electrified sitar feeling here and there. Later on the 11th hour enters with tribal percussion wondering bass line before droping into a great 60’s Morricone like tinkling sea of harpsichord with surf guitar traces coming out of its edger’s.  Lastly the track cleaning living gives birth to a shadowy jazz based air that shimmers with feed back clouds and edgy down beat piano descends, before opening up into closing time bar room piano melodic and rising string beauty thats all still hazed by the odd hint of feedback.

One often says of  great instrumental bands that it’d be great to see them  write soundtracks, but anything off Take refuge in clean living would rather swallow and take away from any cinematic imagers you could conjure up having the audience focusing in on the music and not the film it self. It’s an accomplished, muilt-layered album that effortless mixers genres and conjures up great depth of atmosphere were every you touch down in its sonic folds.

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

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Grails - Take refuge in clean living
Take refuge in clean living sees this US five piece instrumental collective step out  from their post rock/ doom metallic label to presen...
181225   Various Artists - Santa Is Ro...
181225   Death Ride - Death Ride( DVD)
181225   Don’t Open Until Christmas ...
181225   SS Experiment Love Camp - SS ...
171225   Plezzure - Plezzure
171225   May Cause Death,/Hana Haruna ...
161225   Daniel Szwed - Splinter
161225   Marmur - Elektroniczne Systemy
151225   Danheim - Heimferd
151225   Stärker - Spectral
Latest Articles

The Spectral Sounds of The Projec...
As music obsessives know, what makes a label fascinating is not just the sounds they release. The most intriguing labels offer a conceptual framework and con...
041225   The Spectral Sounds of The Pr...
281025   Michael Hurst Interview - Unb...
071025   Xiphos - The Rise And Fall Of...
030925   Third Window Films - A Label ...
130825   HNW fest- Barcelona- 12th Apr...
250725   Raté interview - Walled-in F...
180625   Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sha...
280525   The Residents - Visits From T...
090525   Ennaytch - Of walls, abused ...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom