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Finger on the Pulse with Dirty Dale
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Au – “Verbs”
“Verbs” is the perfect name for this album always in action: constant forward movement, upward and downward arcs of emotion, perpendicular shifts of genre and other shimmerings, shakings, jumpings and twistings occur moment to moment in the tunes. Maybe I’m just so ADD by this point that the quick shifts in temperament don’t affect me that much, but I’d rather think prosody is what makes “Verbs” so special. The calm between the action (the space between the verbs) is the most essential. While it’s the initial shock of jumping from “new” to “new” in the music that really sets “Verbs” apart, the album could hardly command any attention without taking consideration for the moments within the awe.
Luke Wyland is the classically trained multi-instrumentalist behind the Portland, Ore. experimental pop group and his knowledge shines through like a lantern in the musical archives of the Library of Congress. So many different sounds are skated across the record, it could be skewed as overwhelming, but the shifts are handled so deftly everything falls into place like a B.S. Johnson story.
Take “rr vs. d” for example. It is cheery without being cheesy and inspired without being contrived; this album standout shifts from break-beat, Dirty-Projected choral medley to patriotic oomph with little more than a nod, but it works well with its dense consideration of shifting sonic detail. This composition parallels many of the songs on the album.
This needs a little more explanation: the album has a central approach, but only formally. Most songs build on a central theme and add layers to really fill the initial sonic conception out before spilling over into the main movement of the track. Anything but formulaic, each piece fills a rousing musical niche by somehow flying right by its own inspirations – a jazz waltz here, the pomp of a march there – but always glimmering with a pop sheen that leans toward the experimental. We have to ask: Where to classify this? Avant-folk is the pigeonhole, but even that seems to fall short as each track takes some slice of Americana (besides folk) and turns it on its head.
Besides “rr vs. d”, the undulating “Summerheat” exemplifies this best: glowing metallic eeriness melting into lethargy, guitar and vocals fluttering under the surface of atmospherics that seems purposeful but lacks direction, evoking pleasant summer memories and a tinge of melancholia despite its warm color and harmonic strings. The moment dissipates quickly as the percussion makes a late entrance, crashing thick through full tom and cymbal rolls ala Grizzly Bear before moving into a solid, bright head-banger – pure bliss.
Dale W. Eisinger
