This is one band that is very skilled in using musical powers of suggestion to create a plateau of unbelievably intricate textures and fiery passages.

This is the first release by the three-member incarnation of the band. This time out, it’s just Fez Garcia on drums, Taylor Rice on lead guitar and Andy Elkins on vocals as well as guitar. No bass.

But the relative lack of low end doesn’t mar the sheer beauty of the three songs on this “single.” On previous releases, it was obvious the immense level of talent and creativity the band possessed. Basically, they were able to develop a high degree of musical attainment separate of the influence of most of their peers and relied on each other and musicians they could never really imagine meeting as their inspirations.

This fact gives all of their songs a dreaminess and expansive whimsy and that quality is very much present across these three songs even though they’ve gone beyond merely being in contact with their peers in the underground music scene and even collaborating with some of them.

“Seasons Fly” is a tour-de-force on guitar with Rice riffing like he’s John McLaughlin in the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Fissure has always had more than a hint of jazz structures in their music. But instead of placing limits on what they can do or imposing places the music has to go, it merely gives the band a roadmap they can use and redraw or entirely discard if the logic of their songwriting dictates otherwise.

Elkins’ singing is emotively ghostly and engaging like the lingering memories of a dream you’d like to revisit. Guitars intertwine, weave unexpected melodies and rich harmonic textures like Sonic Youth when they want to get weird and yet maintain some discipline and structure within their song.

All the while, Garcia’s percussion accents the outer borders of the soundscape while also providing the low-end springboard off of which each of the guitars and the vocals are able to launch into elegant filigrees and uplifting atmospheres.

“Season Fly” is easily one of the truly remarkable moments of their career.

“Lucy Dee” opens with a fiery riff that could have come off one of Yes’ better albums. But it immediately drifts into melancholy musical passages that burn like embers, accompanied by Elkins’ gently emotive vocals then back to the frenzied sounds of indie rock stretched and twisted in directions it resists.

“Breakthrough” starts out with contemplative minimalism before breaking into a gently driving rhythm with atonally melodic guitar work. Never content with merely one musical idea in a song, the band finishes out the song with an extended build that sets a quiet, tense mood that portends a coming frenzy of sound and emotion.

This is one band that is very skilled in using musical powers of suggestion to create a plateau of unbelievably intricate textures and fiery passages. But with “Breakthrough,” they build and taper off as though to thumb their nose at the very title of the song and leave the EP on a note of uncertainty and yet finality.

For a record that only has three songs, XXX Single is surprisingly rich and deep with invention, creativity and promises of what this band is capable of doing in the future. Fans of Slint, Tortoise, King Crimson and Versus would be well-advised to check out not just this release but all the rest.

---

Digg, Share And Bookmark This Story