Ian William Craig - Centres (2016)

How to describe Centres... It at many points kind of sounds like Josh Groban singing over a cacophony of noise, drones, and static all filtered through a broken tape deck. Which is to say: different, strange, cool, affecting.

Centres definitely sets a mood. Unlike a lot of the music I like that can be said to be on the ambient side of things, there are songs here. Well composed and well thought out, then mangled to hell. It works quite well. It feels ghostly and foreign, but comfortable too... like traveling in a country you have never been and dont speak the language, but there is a Thai restaurant and you order Pad Thai or Kee Mow or whatever - hey, I dont know your preferences for Thai food - and it feels familiar and comfortable even surrounded by strangeness.

The instrumentation definitely has organ, piano, and guitar burried in it somewhere. Mostly though, you will hear walls of static, synths, and voice melodically crecendo. There are sometimes beautiful harmony vocals that almost resemble earlier choral music (I am almost certain this must be a part of Craig's background/music training).

If I were to compare it to anything I might say some of the more experimental tracks by Sigur Ros, but again - really mangled. It isnt an album that suits all occasions, but is perfect right now at 11pm after my wife and daughter have long been asleep and I am writing and sitting next to a cat.

As a kind of sidenote to the review of this album: there is an ep called "Slow Vessels" in which he plays songs from this album on piano and guitar without most of the mangling. Kind of an 'unplugged' style album. It is also really good, if you dont mind the aforementioned Groban-esque thing coming more to the foreground (which I do not). I would start with Centres, but try both as they are both good in their ways. One is more about texture (Centres) and the other is more about songs (Slow Vessels).

Standout track(s):

Innermost

Arrive, Arrive

Drifting To Void On All Sides

The Nearness

Purpose (Is No Country)

(really they are all good at what they do, this is more of an ALBUM than a collection of singles/songs)

Links

Centres (bandcamp page)*

Slow Vessels (bandcamp page)*

Wikipedia*

Web link