There’s no space like Smallspace

Smallspace, a five-piece band from Grand Rapids, Mich. has released its freshman album, “No Matter.” The musicians met at a local art house, coffee shop scene and decided to create and experiment. This was all they intended to do. In the end, they built their own studio, Dynamite Sound Project (more of a hole in the wall), and created their own sound.

These self-made musicians have followed in the path of many a music pioneer, such as Ani Difranco and Tegan and Sara. They maintain the pathway that rock gods such as Sonic Youth and Radiohead have trod, but they remain green and the music industry is a sticky road.

Smallspace has been compared with The Beta Band, Wilco, Elbow, and Radiohead- the strongest of the comparisons being to Radiohead. Singer Jon Faber’s voice and tone haunt and control the listener as does Yorke of Radiohead.

His lyrics seem to whisper and whine all the while soothing the listener. Stephen Slaybaugh of the Village Voice writes, “It’s hard not to hear that more than a little Radiohead has made its way into Smallspace.

Jon Faber’s melancholic croons share a commonality with those of Thom Yorke in . . . their implied lethargy.”

The third track entitled, “For Days” includes the chorus, “And I’m walking the streets to find a way home from the blue glow.” This line is repeated with a buildup of symphonic keyboards, guitars, and drums.

Like Radiohead, the sound is memorable because of the layers, tones, whispers, zips, and repetitions. Yet there is no mistake that the sound is their own.

The last song on the album, “Don’t Go (the cosmonaut)” is as haunting as the blackness and vastness of space itself. As Faber cries/whispers/hums, “don’t go” over and over again there is a sadness accompanied by guitars, trumpets, static and beeps (probably from a computer). This is definitely a sound inaccessible to the mainstream. This will not be on the radio.

The fear is that Smallspace will be pushed to sound even more and more like Radiohead.

Perhaps, like Coldplay, they will be pressured to even sound like they once did, themselves of old, inciting a hollow echo of an old sound never to be found again.

The music is not political, neither is it poppy. It is serious. Serious enough to really pay attention to and wonder, “Where does it come from?” Perhaps bands like Elbow, Radiohead, and Smallspace are on an exploration of sound and space. If the title of the album gives any indication, perhaps there are limits beyond matter the band is yet to enter. After all, this is simply the beginning and Smallspace has depths to breach.

e Firmage
Assistant Culture Editor

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