M. Gira / D. Matz "What We Did" Young God Records YG17 2001 (49:32)
Pacing
the Locks (4:41)
Is/Was (7:20)
Cold Creeping (3:57)
Lines
(3:50)
Brown Eyes (2:01)
17 Hours (6:22)
Stitches (5:20)
Waiting Beside Viragio (2:19)
Forcing
Mary (3:11)
Quiet One (3:30)
Sunflower (3:23)
The Brightest Star (3:37)
Two years in the making, Michael Gira (SWANS, The Angels of Light) and Dan Matz (Windsor for the Derby, The Birdwatcher) casually created and recorded a dozen songs together in the relaxed setting of Matz's homes. Both men are simply credited with various instruments and vocals (plus engineering by Matz) and generally alternate lead vocals track to track save for a lone instrumental. The instrumentation is actually quite extensive, approaching the ornate fleshing out of an Angels album: acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, organ, piano, synth, drums/percussion, drum machine, harmonica, banjo, a few samples and some guitar by James Plotkin and background vocals by Anna Neighbor. If you're coming to this disc via Gira and/or Matz's other endeavors, you won't be surprised but will probably be as pleased with the results as I am. These are 'simple', spontaneous 'pop' songs as affected by Americana as they are the avant-garde. And the pair's voices, poetry and basic song writing skills and styles complement one another well. The sound and feel is mostly slow and subdued, the mood in varying degrees of what I like to call 'uplifting melancholy'. Brief comments on a handful of tracks: "Pacing the Locks" beautifully mourns the passing of time, "Is/Was" becomes soaked in shimmering synth bath and bell tones, "Lines" is pretty pop steeped in blue grass roots, "Brown Eyes" and "Waiting Beside Viragio" are sparse, seemingly solo love songs, "Forcing Mary" will nod your head with driving guitar stabs and "Sunflower" is the peculiar instrumental, a droning hum with sprinkles of piano, guitar and whistling. Though I'm not (yet) as taken with "What We Did" start to finish as I am The Angels of Light's "New Mother" and "How I Loved You", I'm still more than happy with what they did. Gira is currently on tour with The Angels of Light in North America through mid December ...
Where did I get this cd? - promo.