In 2002 Steve Silverstein and Nick Forte released an album on Kranky that challenged the fractured guitars and distorted compositions of many popular and respected musicians, all of whom received far more attention for fewer reasons than I care to think about. Not to be deterred, Christmas Decorations have returned with an even more impressive record this year, their fragmented guitars and willingness to take chances in tow.
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There's no question that Christmas Decorations write songs. All the distortion, oddball vocal deliveries, and sideways compositions in the world couldn't hide that fact on Model 91 and the same is true of Communal Rust. Although the band is stranger than they were before, their music more broken up and unusual, there's a recognizable and elegant melody on each one of the album's nine tracks. For every shuttering string and heavily processed bit of sound there's an equal emphasis on structure and narrative. When a sound dissolves or evolves into something new on the record, the progression seems logical, even if it is unexpected. The number of elemental parts to be found on this record is fairly astonishing, too. I can hear everything from bells and whistles to the wheezing of a harmonica and an acoustic guitar in these songs: there's no shortage of things into which these sounds and instruments can transform.
All of this isn't especially captivating in and of itself: plenty of bands maximize their sound palette and many do a fine job of riding the line between musical and noisy. Christmas Decorations has something extra, though, a special and delicate attention that they pay to detail that breathes life into their songs. These aren't detached experimental compositions meant to demonstrate the versatility of the electric guitar, they are songs with a whole range of emotional utterances. Where Fennesz might stretch his guitars in unexpected or clever ways, Christmas Decorations manipulate their instruments in just the right ways, allowing the song to dictate their timbre, not vice versa. The band has thankfully eschewed any obvious vocal elements from this album, as well, further condensing and concentrating their presentation.
Silverstein and Forte's extra "something" special comes from their focus, at least in part. What is unnecessary is left out, what is effective and powerful is kept in and emphasized, as on "Browning Out." The song begins with the warm hum of amplifiers powering up, but slowly evolves into a soundscape piece full of distorted highlights. The shaking power of that hum could've easily been the focal point for this song, the plain character of the whole thing excused away in the name of experimenting. Christmas Decorations, however, focus brilliantly on the minutiae that slowly grow out of the song. They do this all over the record, in fact. There isn't a single minute of music that isn't possessed by some moment of ingenuity and careful consideration. Cut up bits of cello or violin performance find their way into crystalline pops of feedback and drone, as though all these various parts were meant to be next to each other the second electricity made such music possible. When all of these elements come together, it's difficult not to think that Christmas Decorations had some kind of Hitchcock-ian story board planned out second by second because Christmas Decorations not only hold all the right cards, they know how to play them very well.
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