"Thanks For your Kind Words" é o debute do trio de Washington DC, Spectrums. Lançado há exatos vintes dias atrás, os veteranos de cena, David Barker (guitarras, e sintetizadores), Simon Ley (bateria) e David Nicholas (guitarras), criaram um intrínseco emaranhado instrumental que pode ser perfeitamente direcionado em post rock, prog, experimental, ambiente, ou simplesmente todos os rótulos unificados.
Diferentemente da receita comum das bandas de post rock, que criam suas ambientações em variáveis entre crescendos, o Spectrums conduz linearmente suas estruturas, de forma matemática, se aproximam muito mais de estruturas entre o kraut e o pós punk do que o post rock propriamente dito.
Um trabalho para ser degustado com calma e diversas vezes, só assim é possível apreciar todas as nuances que o Spectrums pode ofertar.
***** Interview with Spectrums *****
Spectrums began as a guitar duo project. In late 2016, we started to write songs that seemed would work with drums. Simon Ley and David Barker had played together in previous bands so we evolved the material as a trio and the songs started to really build through this year. And we continue to write constantly; every week there's at least one new idea in development so that keeps things fresh.
Q: Who are your influences?
It's pretty diverse individually and then we converge on a lot too. Simon likes 70s/80s hip hop so you'll hear that element work its way in. We love Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and onward to post-punk guitarists like John McGeoch and Geordie Walker. Bands that know how to intertwine two guitar are naturally something we're into. We've seen Luna many times and just last night we saw The Church here in DC. Lately we've been introducing keyboards into the songs and Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter's soundtracks were some immediate references for us.
Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time...
Rubber Soul,
Paul's Boutique,
The Stone Roses,
Unknown Pleasures,
and Meddle by Pink Floyd.
Q. How do you feel playing live?
It forces us to focus and decide what is going to work in that setting - so it's a good way to edit the songs since we keep stockpiling so many. Performing can be fun and nerve-wracking all at the same time!
Q. How do you describe Spectrums sounds?
With two guitars and drums, there is still lots of space and room to play with dynamics, so we try to exploit that in a good way. At the same time, we're not interested in some of the more indulgent aspects of instrumental music. We want to get to the hooks pretty quickly and have more than just textures and moods. Playing for the song is important to us.
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
We did it live - no overdubs on Thanks For Your Kind Words. We worked with Mike Reina and just set up mics, got sounds that we all liked very quickly and knocked out three songs, ate some really good barbecue chicken, knocked out two more songs, and called it an evening. Mike did a great job on the mix and the result is very true to what we do live. That was good feeling to capture on a debut recording. We're really happy with the artwork and layout by Christian Baldo as well.
Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
A few months ago we all went to see Tycho and while they have been around for some time, that was an amazing show. The way they blend guitars with keyboards is fantastic and made us want to explore that direction. Similarly with Washed Out and LCD Soundsystem too.
Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
We toy with this idea all the time! Current contender seems to be Jimi Hendrix. Making it work with two guitars is an interesting challenge so we've not settled on which song to do but it's fun to take a run at his work.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
Definitely more integration of the keyboards and drum machines with the guitar compositions. We're amassing more technology all the time too, so it's not out of the question that we'll try some keyboard duos and try to make that work with transitions to guitars. Arranging for that kind of dynamic has been a fun new element that we started as soon as we finished our recording. We'll release Thanks For Your Kind Words on October 10 and from there we've got some shows booked in the DC/VA area so we're looking forward to that.
Q: Any parting words?
Thanks for what you do with TBTCI and for continuing to bring new music to us!
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Thanks
http://www.spectrumsdc.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SpectrumsDC/
https://spectrumsdc.bandcamp.com/releases
