Thursday, February 4, 2010

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This is the first track off of the lp, entitled Wisteria.


This expansive LP from Pittsburgh mainstays HARANGUE is a dreamwalk through the minds of its makers, replete with unexpected vistas from this quartet of piano, guitar, bass and drums. Opening with the taut bounce of "Wisteria," the band jumps off with brisk melancholy, weaving and unraveling the layers and hooks of this standout track. Wisteria is a defined aesthetic statement, the sound is fraught with false nostalgia for nature, for simpler times.

"Uniformly Chaotic" turns on dimes, steadily driving through flowing melodies and subtly continual dynamic shifts. Harangue's energetic piano and rhythm section pound while the guitar snakes in and out of contrapuntal bliss, hissing out reverb and fuzz like the Kinks' Dave Davies, and countered with desperate lyrical themes suggesting Street Hassle-era Lou Reed.

Side B continues Harangue's sojourn with "The Valley," an epic trip of yearning through noir-ish shadows yielding to brilliant glimpses of sunlight through spring-reverb guitar texture and earth-rumbling, feedback-laden solos.

The LP's closer "Whitewashed Wall" rides through the end of night's tunnel, using negative space like a magic marker. Talking deliverance and sounding dark before sunrise, the song sways between half-tempo slow dance and full-on haunt before the backbeat swings and ascends with a bubbling line of guitar triplets that bloom into grand sonic swaths--triumphant, immersive, nearly decadent, harkening back to an imaginary jam between George Gershwin and Pink Floyd in '75.


You can purchase this 12" LP from Wilder Pryor Records, for $13 here, by clicking on the paypal button below.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds super great, will check it out.

    - Purple Pantsed Pirate

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  2. This is an excellent album, glad I picked it up! Is there anything else available or in the works from Harangue?

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