Vespers
Soft Landing Records
Score: 6/10
Neo-classicism and post-rock are two genres that push and play with each other, maybe moreso than any other two distinct genres in music (save, perhaps, dance and pop). They occupy very close musical spaces, but the difference between the two is the path they took to get there. Post-rock has its roots, obviously, in rock music. It, however, imbues the modern genre with the instrumentation and song structure of classical music. Neo-classicism, on the other hand, builds its base on classical music, choosing to modernize it with recent concepts of melody and arrangement
The products can seem similar if you only listen. The opening movement of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Storm" is not particularly musically different than tracks by Max Richter, but the approach that each takes is audible upon repeated listens, where Richter's sweeping violins sound intentionally plucked from a Wagnerian opera, and Godspeed's lush arrangements sound as though they are there to age their militant drums.
Redhooker is a Brooklyn four-piece from, appropriately, the Red Hook neighborhood. The band is made up of Stephen Griesgraber on guitar, Ben Lively and Maxim Mostom on violin and Peter Hess on bass clarinet. All save Hess come from the similarly-minded Brooklyn group Slow Six. In terms of the dichotomy between neo-classicism and post-rock, Redhooker occupy something of an uncertain middle ground, one that attempts to approach the sound from both ends and ends up doing neither.
That's not to say Redhooker's second album Vespers is unenjoyable, simply aimless. The album is comprised of six songs, four of which were arranged and composed by Griesgraber and all sit comfortably under the seven minute mark. The other two, "Presence and Reflection" and "Black Light Poster Child" are improvisations, both well over twelve minutes, manipulated by Griesgraber in real time through use of Max/MSP software, which for the purposes of understanding, can be compared to a more advanced version of the loop pedals that Owen Pallett uses.
The short songs are the best of the lot, as they embrace the full-blown melodicism of the group, clearly marking their differences from the more tense Slow Six. Tracks like "Bedside" and "Friction" are undeniably pretty, with simple but satisfying melodic structure. By contrast, the two improvised pieces follow a less likable format, one that tries the minimalist tension of Godspeed for just too long before finally opening up at the end of their running lengths to their engaging melodies. If "Presence" and "Black Light" were cut down to their more intoxicating moments, the tension that the band strives for so overtly in their introductions would be implied. Instead, it sounds unfortunately meandering.
Even at their most beautiful moments, like the echoing plucked strings and rich bass clarinet of opener "Standing Still", the band suffers from a lack of direction. Only "Friction", at four and a half minutes, is short enough to not to sound forced, its interesting violin interplay reaching that push and pull between neo-classicism and post-rock that the group seems to be striving for. But on the rest of the album, Redhooker simply sound like they're attempting to reach the highs of Jóhann Jóhannsson or Max Richter.
Vespers isn't a bad album, and it's more melodic moments are occasionally entrancing, but too often even those moments can fade into the background, failing to grab the listener's attention. By attempting to work the sound from both angles it seems that Redhooker never found a comfortable place to end up, one where they could give an absolute trajectory to their music. As pretty as it sometimes is, Vespers falls flat too often.
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