DUSTCOVERED
CARPET – a cloud, pushed and squeezed
(CD,
beatismurder)
The folk-homerecording collective Dust Covered Carpet
around Volker Buchgraber has pulled the reins on their second album,
increased on where their strengths are and focused on what they want rather
than what they can. The loseness, happy go lucky first take arrangements and
creative freedom that comes with ignorance of the first album has gone for a
more controlled approach to arrangements and probably the will to revise and
rework a song as long as necessary to reach the achieved grade of
perfection. Within that process though the warmth and humanity of the songs
and the collective music making did not get lost, therefore it is definitely
an overall improvement. In a way I am sure that the song “the writer’s
pen” gives all of this away, it even mentions the legendary Dust Covered
Carpet all of this started on some years ago.
Another fact to strengthen the new found seriousness
and seriosity implied in taking a hobby to a meaningful arts project, is
that the mastering was done by Harris Newman in Montral, who also worked for
Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade and probably a shipload of other alike bands as
well. This is also the direction the music seems to be going. That, and
Connor Oberst still spooking around everywhere you look, in every dark
corner or long unused attic you may find some Bright Eyes.
Within the arrangements of acoustic guitars adorned
with all kinds of handy instruments, from drums and harmonica to bass
(provided by Dino Spiluttini of Liger) and glockenspiel, mainly the dilligently
worked out harmony singings and choirs in the back are standing out.
Especially their technically well done execution shows a lot more technical
incliniation towards perfection than would be expectable from a pure
homerecording for fun project. Is that some signifier for this that the
cloud on the cover of the album looks more like a symbolic brain to me?
Probably not.
Unlike their local contemporaries A life A song A cigarette
and Protestant
Work Ethic (and probably a hundred more, but those are the ones
in my focus, sue me) Dust Covered Carpet rely a lot more on the most
traditional Viennese rhythm: the 3/4 waltz rhythm. When they include an
accordion to that as on “Boredom’s my key” the music becomes
interestingly close to a seaman’s shanty. Nevertheless, there is no
staggering in the rhythmical play. Actually they are structurally quite able
to do some complicated things and keep the beat steady as a clock. Not
everything that sounds simple is complicated and vice versa and also the
other way around. Try to keep that in mind.
“A cloud, pushed and squeezed” puts the stakes up
high for all those young songwriters with acoustic guitars huddling in the
cold corners of this city, waiting for their turn in the limelight of the
small clubs opening stages or at least lightened corners for them. The
lesson is one about work and about determination. Attitude determines
altitude as one of my old teachers used to say, but he never mentioned that
you could adhere this principle to something you love to do as well.
