Midnight Masses
Rapture Ready, I Gazed At The Body EP
Rating: 3.0/5.0
Label: Collect Records / Team Love
Sometimes it seems that bands don't form these days- they seem only to organically spin off from musical collectives into tighter and tighter knots of sound until they start expanding. Midnight Masses is one of these, formed by Autry Fulbright and Jason Reece of And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Initially an attempt at catharsis following the death of Fulbright's father, Rapture Ready, I Gazed At The Body shows the band as sonically cohesive and imposing in a way few collectives are.
The very brief EP opens with "Walk on Water," a shimmering, atmospheric track mostly dominated keyboards, echo and silence; massed voices sing, "Carry on, carry on" in what's more of a plea than a command. It's deliberately elegiac and optimistic at the same time, wringing every last ounce of emotion out of a trembling lap steel. Rapture Ready shifts gears quickly with "Preacher's Son," opening with a raspy voice pealing out "Rapture ready, I gazed at the gun/ I didn't lose the signal, not even once." It's ominous and regretful, like the confession of a teenaged murderer on the road. Relying on the same synth-washed production as the previous song, "Preacher's Son" is far more driven, the guitars sounding nearly as crystalline as the keyboards.
The final track, "I Was A Desperate Man," shifts to a female voice; the sentiment of "I was a desperate man/ Empty bottle in my hand" could be lifted from an ancient Delta Blues song, but the sound is miles away, all drums and bass and synthesizer. The singer's voice borders on childish at times, but the edge of youth only adds to the appeal of the song. Unfortunately, the band does leave the song hang with nearly two minutes of drum and repetitious keyboard- the kind of indulgence such a brief release hardly needs.
Midnight Masses have a lot to be proud of in a short EP. Of course, with apparently up to 14 people working behind the scenes on this, they've had a lot to work with. Hopefully they can keep it up.
by Nathan Kamal
