DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS

s/t

CD/LP, Moon Lee

It is not just the piano that makes this instrumental rock-record so much better than the rest. It is the transgression of postrock and rock into a mighty and at the same time beautiful, organic record that spreads warmth, atmosphere and energy. Moreover it is the size that this band thinks in, that sets it apart. Where for instance Natsat stick to their small space and refine their approach in minute detail, DMWT set out to strike for the big form, thus matching themselves with the really big musical dinosaurs out there – which is not Godspeed but rather Led Zeppelin. The fate of “nice for lazy Sunday afternoons”, which is often reserved for instrumental records, doesn’t fit here, because this one needs something way bigger.

From the three records starting the initial releases on Moon Lee Records, I picked this one first to listen to and what a surprise – a great one indeed. It is possible that my judgement of the records by Analena and Lunar on the same label was positively influenced by how much I like this one. Psychologists would like to call this a halo-effect. The reason why I picked this one first was their band name: Don’t mess with Texas. A slogan I always like a lot because of its bold upfrontness. The historical reasons (the Alamo, Texas being a state of Mexico for a long time and so on) apart, this claim is worn by a lot of people from the US like a shield that says: hey, before we start anything, I’d like to make this one clear. Agreed? Allright partner, so we can start now. On the other hand I am almost convinced that this band, from Zagreb, Croatia, chose that name for the simple reason of it being a remarkable, rememberable name without much further ado. Looks as if that plan worked out well. And I ain’t ever gonna ask if the “x” in front and after the bandname actually mean what I think they do.

The musical plan of DMWT also works out well. I’d like to describe it as trying to destroy the (alleged) opposition between postrock and rock aka structure versus emotion aka soft versus heavy. But in this bout, the soft and the heavy sides both offer variation on various levels and while they are matching up against each other are also building together. Take for instance the very first song on this record: “sound of one lung filling with water”, which deftly shows what can be done with bass, guitars, drums and an e-piano (which gets used as a synthie producing faked string-sets later on). The song starts with a simple piano-figure that keeps on for some time and acts as a basic structure for the rest of the band to build on, try out different figures and constellations, change things around a bit, but constantly swelling and rising. That way a great dynamic tension is built up and finally released when the song breaks into a churning rock-monster that has the same steadfast pounding machinery-rhythm that Neurosis used in their Souls At Zero-phase or that has become attributed to Godspeed you black emperor.

This rhythmic figure, that stomping, churning beat that is produced by the whole band as an almost corporal movement, bound to break up into e.g. a guitar solo or an open final release, returns a lot of times on this record. A great example of a young band honing their skills and instruments. Actually, DMWT is only young as this incarnation; various bandmembers have experience in other bands such as Radio Free Isaac, Lunar, Neven, Ozren or Nikad. DMWT is definitely a step away and forward from all these formations. Even Lunar, as maybe the closest comparable bandformation never manages the delicate consistency. For instance, when after a few initial notes on the piano, a reverbing guitar sets off into an intricate dialogue with the piano for quite some time on “You’re not punk and I’m tellin’ everyone” (is that a telling title or what?), before the song changes around quite a bit and the band sets in over the piano playing four notes over and over again. Such a moment of gentle and delicate beauty is rarely ever achieved by a band from a regular rock background this side of Sigur Ros. Minus the esoteric, Icelandic elvenes, of course, and plus some serious rocking.

Then there’s the focus towards details and beautiful melodies. The guitar line on “Marijana, daj stani” drives on a melancholic beauty that reminds me of Brahms (who wouldn’t have used so simple chords of course and would have bound himself to the more complex and variating structure of a classical concerto) but with support of the rest of the band builds itself up into a full-clad band-arrangement that sets out to be BIG in big letters. Double big. Or the way the piano plays different bass notes while the band stays on the same pattern, all as an introduction towards a regulated break that starts them off into a whole band blast. I say blast, even though the whole record never sets into anything faster than would be notated as “moody”. So maybe the real feat of DMWT is proving that speed or velocity is not as important to rock as size and power.

www.moonleerecords.com

02/2005