Aaron Martin - Night Erased Them All

Aaron Martin
Night Erased Them All
(2010, Sonic Meditations)
RIYL = Johann Johansson, Greg Haines, Sean McCann

Instructions for Aaron Martin’s latest album, Night Erased Them All, are these: listen alone while driving at night. Inasmuch as Night Erased Them All is a gorgeously muscular escape into altered consciousnesses (which it very much is), this may not be the safest idea. I imagine while listening (home safely, headphones snug) some poor soul venturing out into black summer air in his '93 Saab, in her 2002 Accord, turning through the local neighborhoods, becoming intoxicated on the beautiful orchestral movements, the brooding strings and thick almost dooming bass, the contortions, and sinking into the earth, the hood of their car skimming just above the gravel plane of the pavement as their vehicle dips lower and lower into the top soil underneath – missing stop signs, undaunted by stop lights – before descending too low, missing a turn and driving straight into the basement of some unsuspecting, some slumbering home. That’s how I figure it. And though it would be an amazing way to go out, I don’t think I’m ready to be bloodied in some foreign basement, primal vocal harmonies cooing through my speaker system. However, if you happened to be resiliently awake and pining for the night air, I won’t stop you. One thing concerning Mr. Martin’s instructions are important however: that you be alone with Night Erased Them All. This is isolationist music. Headphones, as I mentioned earlier, are important. And, in addition, this is night music. Brilliant and seductive, beautiful and engrossing, and black black black. The album consists of two 15 minute tracks with a magnificent flow through neo-classical tributaries to droning Niles. Aaron Martin’s second success this year, and perhaps his crowning achievement. There is something different to take from every release Martin sets free, but Night Erased Them All just seems all that much more provocative. A must.

-Thistle

Aaron Martin on MySpace

Aaron Martin - Worried About the Fire

Aaron Martin
Worried About the Fire
(2010, Experimedia)
RIYL = Max Richter, Rachels, Sean McCann

In the most recent Listed feature from Dusted Magazine, Julianna Barwick said that she was pretty sure that “13 Angels Standing Guard ‘Round the Side of Your Bed” by A Silver Mt, Zion was “the most beautiful song [she’s] ever heard.” I have a hard time disagreeing with statement because, one, it’s an opinion based on her personal experience, and two, I pretty much agree. That is provides an odd segue into this album review, I know, but Aaron Martin’s latest album, Worried About the Fire, feels like a dozen pop sized chamber burners of that same beautiful timber found in “13 Angels…” Martin’s work has always been a heavy favourite of mine. His debut, Almond, sat just one tick short of making my end of decade list. On this most recent full length, Worried About the Fire, Martin doesn’t set out to do the same things that he accomplished with his first albums, opting instead to rework his existing catalog of recordings into twelve pop sized (2 to 4 minutes) musings on the pangs of minor key gorgeousness. The results are compelling, displaying minute gestures via cello layering, chamber orchestration and avante garde texturing. While Worried About the Fire may not involve the 13 angels enlisted by A Silver Mt. Zion, it’s difficult not to imagine the 12 tracks on the album each standing in for a particularly angelic seraph. Another beautiful outing, Worried About the Fire confirms my opinion that Aaron Martin is perhaps the most compelling post classical composer/musician working today.

-Thistle

Aaron Martin - River Water

Aaron Martin
River Water
(02.2008, Preservation)
Verdict = Odd, Arresting Chamber Instrumentals

Aaron Martin is in the business of composing and performing spectral requiems for aliens and monsters. Currently it seems as though business couldn’t be better and Martin is certainly at the top of his game mining the most awkwardly beautiful minor key odes to the fallen. River Water is the follow up to Martin’s 2006 full length, Almond, as far as I can tell, but he also worked on various other projects between LP's. Recent exploits with Dutch experimentalist Machinefabriek and an even more recent EP sized release last November mark a continued trail of Martin’s golden touch. On River Water Martin finds the middle ground between competent chamber orchestrations and kitchen sink experimentation, creating mysterious, melodic pieces that seem as familiar as they do otherworldly. Martin’s is an amazing tight rope act in which he miraculously manages to keep his pieces from becoming too abstract or banally familiar leaving a constant tension that is irresistible to listen to. I mean, there may be humans at these alien/monster funerals so he can’t get to wacky right? While most comparisons to his music fall flat, there is a slight air of early Silver Mount Zion instrumentals that in my humble opinion (and yes, in contrast to Wooly Mammals recent acclaim) were the group’s strongest suit and occasionally Rachel’s reveries. All in all, a fan of avant garde, experimental, instrumental, post rock and the like should dive into River Water (no pun planned, but whatever, I’m all for horrible puns and am obviously a proponent of bad writing) because there is definitely some extremely rare alien type gold to be had here (which I shouldn't have to remind you is much more rare and expensive than earth gold).

-Mr. Thistle

Aaron Martin on Virb