The label describes this as "cosmic post rock for fans of Mogwai, Mono, and Explosions In The Sky". The cosmic part fits this pretty well, but I hear something quite different than the same old Mono/GYBE/Mogwai knockoff that you might expect from that description. What I'm hearing on this limited edition disc is a cold, somewhat dissonant take on late 80's gloom rock, stuff like The Church and Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, but played vastly slower and draped in darkness and shadows. That 80's gloom sound is a personal favorite sound of mine, so this disc blew me away when I finally got around to checking it out. Celestial Sea is Todd Paulson and Andrew Curtis-Brignell; Todd runs the excellent outsider-black metal label God Is Myth and also plays in the black metal/folk projects Uvall and Dormant, while Andrew is best known for his main gig Caina, which has turned into quite a buzzed-about project with his two albums on Profound Lore. Before Caina started putting out records on Profound Lore, Andrew released his debut through Paulson's label, and this new project grew out of that relationship. It might be my favorite recording from either of these guys, to be honest with you, and I'll bet that if you loved any of Caina's albums, as cloaked in blissed out 4AD style dreampop and gloomy British drizzle as they are, well, you be spinning Celestial Sea's disc quite a bit.
The first track "Clouds" opens with a rush of black cosmic drift, waves of crushing low-end feedback crashing over one another in a surging Lustmord-like ocean of dark ambience, and then recedes as a lone acoustic guitar enters, playing a somber minor key melody over a softly shifting surface of feedback and ambient rumblings that lasts for several minutes. After this dark entrance, Celestial Sea kick in fully with "As The Birds Fly South", it's lush reverb-soaked guitars and misty ambience evoking the crystalline sound of The Church's Starfish and Slowdive, but slowed to a heavy, droning pace. A gorgeous melodic arpeggio falls like snow over the layered strum of the electric guitars, a simple plodding motorik beat pulsing in the background, droning organs buzzing through the icy haze, while Curtis-Brignell's fragile croon drifts over it all, a single beautiful riff repeated over and over. There are moments when everything seems to bend a little as a subtle dissonance creeps into the music and allows a feeling of unease to settle on it briefly, but the song always returns to it's blissed out prettiness, and eventually builds into a heavy crescendo towards the end as distorted guitars appear and surging double-bass drumming begins to rumble down in the mix, until it all explodes in a flash of blinding heat at the end, fading out on a simple pipe organ melody.
The next song "William Bentley'S Grave" begins with gently delayed guitars and hushed vocals that fade in and out, and the drums barely there at all, just
a simple hi-hat pulse in the background, everything soft and hazy, until the drums finally kick in and the main guitar melody begins to play over and over again, a simple Slowdive-esque melody drenched in delay and reverb, chiming over the slow metronomic drums and sheets of gleaming synth and kosmiche ambience. Dark and beautiful and dreamy, this song sounds like some lost British dreampop b-side, layered with metallic guitars and shimmering drones.
The fourth and last is "Deep Inside The Cold ", an all instrumental ten-minute epic. This one starts off heavier than the others, a bed of grinding distorted guitar simmering under another dreamy melody, washes of dissonant chords sweeping over the central riff, and the drumming itself is heavier and more aggressive. Some searing lead guitar appears, playing some psychedelic solo over an ominous chord progression that starts to sound like a heavier version of Pink Floyd, actually. The second half shifts gears as the drums kick in to a faster paced motorik beat and the guitars erupt into a wave of feedback and distortion, and it turns for a moment into a kind of crushing krautrock jam, before fading away on a cloud of amplifier howl and rumble...
I don't doubt that fans of the current epic rock sound would probably love this, but this is even more recommended to those of you who love gloomy indie rock and overcast dreampop and old school British shoegaze, bands like The Church and late-80's Cure, Red House Painters, Slowdive, stuff like that, but who like the idea of hearing that sound filtered through a slight heaviness, tempered with the heavier riffage of bands like Agalloch and Kataonia.
The disc is limited to 300 copies, and comes in a minimalist white jacket with a printed insert and the band name pasted onto the front. Recommended!