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I am so pleased to be telling you that there is a new record available
from The Curtain Society. I fell in love with this band many
years ago, and after an EP and an amazing full length album, the band
seemed to disappear. Their early works were full-on dark shoegazer
brilliance; wall of sound guitars and crisp drumming that perfectly
underpinned the vocals, which - amazingly - were not buried in the
sonic haze. The band wrote good songs, and just happened to play them
in all their noisy fury… exactly the way that bands like Ride
did so long ago.
On the new release, Every Corner Of The Room, The Curtain
Society boys have progressed to a more open pop sound, but have maintained
the sonic edge that set them apart from so many of their contemporaries
eight or so years ago. Duncan Arsenault's drumming is still
as splendid as ever, not only moving the songs forward at each beat,
but managing to sound fresh and vibrant on every song. Ron Mominee
lays down solid bass grooves that help to accomplish the solid foundation
on which all of these songs are built, while Roger Lavallee
plays all the tricks with his guitar that recall the glory days of
early 'gazer rock. The perfect example is "Two Wonderful Stars",
with its amazingly sonic guitars and captivating loops all afloat
upon a bed of rocksteady rhythm, and some of the finest use of the
ride cymbal I've heard in ages. This is the kind of song that Swervedriver
was turning out in their heyday, only a bit cleaner around the edges.
On tracks like "Chemical", the band develops a tight groove
and offsets the rhythm with interesting keyboard bits and tremeloed
guitars that build tension, while the vocal production keeps the ear
focused, waiting for that next important bit of information. A completely
different sound comes out on "Diver", a beautiful acoustic
track that finds Lavallee's vocals sounding much more like the old
days, hitting falsetto notes effortlessly and carrying the emotion
of the words to their full. The title track has a bit of a jangle-pop
sound, with cleaner guitars scrubbing away underneath a more open
sound that breathes a bit more relaxedly than much of the record.
Getting a bit trashy near the end of the record the band pulls out
all stops on the excellently produced rock track "Motorcycle
Baby". This song sits somewhere between middle era Love And
Rockets and early Sparklehorse, but with a decidedly keyboard-heavy
groove that moves the song along nicely. The final track, "Anchor",
could be lifted from any number of Brian Wilson productions,
as the melody lines are light and airy, while the sound is definitely
that of a shoegaze band gone a bit more acoustic and opening up the
spectrum of sounds at their disposal.
This record breaks enough musical ground to be accessible to all
but the most fickle of musical tastes, but the focus of the songs
remains a somewhat slowed sonic hullabaloo that would really appeal
to fans of Ride, Slowdive, The Autumns, Starflyer
59, Swervedriver, and the like. If you're new to The Curtain Society,
then here's your plan of action: Hunt down your own copies of the
band's earlier releases, 1995's Inertia and 1996's Life
Is Long, Still. Then you can make an able comparison on your own
and begin to realize exactly the type of talent that has lain hidden
from so many for so long. But know that you've read this review, you
have no reason to not find this new record, at the very least, and
get a glimpse of what is still possible outside the sphere of top
40 rock.
-Embo Blake
Track Listing:
1. No Wonder
2. Cave In
3. Beautiful Song
4. Slowberry
5. 5. Two Wonderful Stars
6. Chemical
7. Marigold Girl
8. Diver
9. Feather
10. Every Corner of the Room
11. Not Very Long
12. Motorcycle Baby
13. Anchor
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