Volcano Choir
Unmap
Rating: 3.0/5.0
Label: Jagjaguwar
First a little background; you may have heard that the Volcano Choir is the new band from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. In actuality, some of the songs pre-date Bon Iver and the album is really collaboration between Vernon and a band he toured with in earlier days- fellow Wisconsinites Collections of Colonies of Bees. They re-teamed last fall at Justin and Nate Vernon's recording studio to work on their debut, Unmap.
Most listeners, fairly or not, will wonder how it stacks up against Bon Iver. There are few songs as immediately appealing or compelling as anything on For Emma, Forever Ago, which is shaping up to be a late decade classic and one whose songs benefit from a more robust, rocking live treatment. Unmap is not as intimate and song-centered as Emma, instead favoring more of an experimental, sonically adventurous, even avant-garde bent. Where Emma was about the songs and emotions, Unmap is more about the mood, the layers and the textures. While it still feels rural, you'd be forgiven for thinking Brian Eno or John Cage is out in the Wisconsin woods with them. Like a woodsier and gentler Animal Collective, Volcano Choir often merge the folk-y with the electronic; gently plucked acoustic guitars rub up against a metronomic beep on "Husks and Shells," atmospheric keyboards back Vernon's rich, warm voice, which is then overtaken by a harsh buzz on "Dote." "And Gather" is like a minimalist sculpture set in the snow.
Some songs run to nearly seven minutes, while others are mere fragments, clocking in a minute or two, which is occasionally problematic. "Cool Knowledge," with its strong beat and mixture of throaty and choir-like vocals, is far too brief, while the up-tempo "Sleepymouth" builds and swells without really going anywhere, much like "Babys" from Bon Iver's Blood Bank EP, released earlier this year. Another song from that album, the Auto-Tuned "Woods" reemerges as a musically dense, dramatic song called "Still." The highlight is "Islands, IS," which has a bubbling, pulsating rhythm and energy that recalls, of all bands, iconic/iconoclastic German pioneers Can. Vernon's vocals, have a soulful warmth and depth similar to TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. Throughout the album, the vocals, which often have a communal, campfire feel (though prettier), are the strongest point.
Unmap is a somewhat awkward, but mostly accurate title for an album where a group of like-minded musicians are going off in their own direction, pushing themselves and their audience. It takes a few listens to get into and not every song works, but it is a mostly rewarding, inventive album that feels, like the album cover, both familiar and a little strange.
by Lukas Sherman
