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Envy "Insomniac Doze"
I came across some Envy records years back and suddenly became ravenous to hear everything put out by the band. They seemed like a succinct Japanese amalgam of a bunch of post-hardcore bands who alternated between the delicate and the demolishing. Screamed vocals, melodic guitar tones, and anthemic songs were all part of the band's DNA.
I didn't mind that the band's DNA seemed to be genetically engineered from their influences (Thymine=Anomie; Adenine=Isis; Guano=Yage; Cytosine=To Dream of Autumn). Though a little soulless, Envy were able to make compelling enough music to keep me chasing after elusive 7" singles on the Japanese H:G Fact label. But a few too many releases without much diversity caused me to lose interest rapidly in the band. Envy's switch to Temporary Residence has partly helped to resuscitate my interest, but not nearly as much as the evolution of their music.
Previously, the band relied on a series of simple decibel crescendos under the veil of patented power chords to induce the anthemic quality of the music. To be honest, they still fall back on this maneuver. But they have also peppered their songs with more guitar complexity underlying the volume increase, recorded in such a way that you can hear all the intricacies while being enveloped by a tsunami of noise. The outright softer moments are accompanied by spoken-word vocals, reminding me a little of the August Born album of last year where Chasny's guitar pieces were punctuated by Hiroyuki Usui's breathy words. "Crystallize" even has some softly sung vocals, but most of the singing is done in the louder segments and some might hesitate to actually call it singing. Rather, it's a hoarse Eastern rasp reminiscent of a more continental style of post-hardcore. Think French hardcore, in particular: Fingerprint, Jasemine, Amanda Woodward, Rachel. To be honest, it's a sound which can get old quickly.
Envy have fortunately tempered their reliance on this sound and the album benefits from it. Furthermore, Envy has capitalized on the recombination of the post-rock genome into their music. Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and countrymen Mono have helped to inform the band's approach.. Witness the patience of "The Unknown Glow." The old Envy would have been unable to harness and check the energy unleashed from the first five minutes of this song, content for the song to consume itself after those first minutes. Yet this more mature Envy allows an infectious guitar riff both to quell and to proliferate the song, drifting into ruminative quietude for a bit, and then gathering the storm once more. The end of the song is a template for snare drum histrionics, but, again, they have learned well from their contemporaries.
Drama is just something which is innate to Envy. You have to buy into the intentional gravity of the music before you enjoy it. "Night in Winter" and "A Warm Room," the final two movements, showcase the dramatic weight of the band nicely. The songs vibrate with a hollow spookiness and surge towards the sky. Though Envy are convinced they are up to something profound and deep, they often find themselves lighter than air, buoyant despite the proposed weight of their music, floating ever upwards.
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