Land of Kush, Against the Day (Constellation Records)

[Michael Bailey]

so James Wood writes music criticism too?

On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 9:34 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> Against the Day
> Land of Kush
> Constellation Records
>
>
> We need something akin to the original punk revolution. We really need
> something akin to the original punk revolution, something that'll come
> through, wipe out the bloated excesses of the indie-rock world and
> bring rock music back down to earth, like the class of '77 did to
> obliterate prog and disco's bloated hold on people's ears.
>
> Don't believe it? If the latest string of self-obsessed art-rock
> goofballs hasn't already proven our point, Against the Day, Land of
> Kush's first album, should serve to underscore the urgency of a new
> rock revolution. In an era when obscenely orchestrated acts are
> common, the 30-member ensemble is overblown in its own right. When it
> harnesses that sort of manpower in an effort to recreate a sound of a
> 2,000-year-old Egyptian orchestra, it's clear it's high time someone
> needs to bring a safety pin to this art-rock bubble.
>
> Land of Kush's pretense isn't even matched by its competence. Never
> quite sounding like the ethnomusicologist's wet dream it thinks it is,
> Against the Day sounds more like a bunch of stoners hitting the bong,
> dropping a tab and mincing cheaply scored Egyptian television shows
> with cheaply manufactured psychedelic rock. If a Patrick Troughton-era
> episode of Doctor Who paid a visit to Tutankhamun, this might be what
> you'd hear playing in the background behind those famously low-budget
> special effects. Electronics and a brass section bolster songs that
> put the violin (an anachronism by about 15 centuries in the
> pyramid-era sound) and a brass section right in the middle of the
> action. "The Light Over the Ranges" and "Bilocations" dabble as an
> instrumental and with-vocals tracks, respectively, and serve more as
> an ode to the excesses only a giant ensemble and an unmanageable
> concept can bring.
>
> Against the Day is concept and arrogance first, music second, existing
> less for listeners than for the perverse joy the band's members found
> in making it. Throw in liner notes that masturbate about the impact of
> Thomas Pynchon's writing, and Land of Kush couldn't be a bigger parody
> of indie-era highbrow overindulgences if it tried to be one.
>
> We need a new punk, a fresh, vital and immediate musical movement to
> come and carpet-bomb the environment from which Land of Kush and its
> art-rock, neo-prog and experimental counterparts spring. We need it
> fast, or we're all going to suffocate under the weight of this junk.
>
> http://www.aversion.com/bands/reviews.cfm?review=3917&artist=Land%20of%20Kush&title=Against%20the%20Day
>



-- 
--
"Frenesi's eyes, even on the aging ECO stock, took over the frame, a
defiance of blue unfadable."