Chattanooga Pulse

Written by Ernie Paik
Wednesday, 25 February 2009 19:57

Sin Fang Bous
Clangour
(Morr Music)

In my book, it’s OK to have megalomaniac and control-freak tendencies as long as you can deliver the goods, like Prince in his earlier days or, more recently, Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal. Icelandic musician Sindri Már Sigfússon, a.k.a. Sin Fang Bous, created every single sound on his debut album Clangour, purposefully done as a sort of personal challenge. Sigfússon is best known as the founder and front man of the band Seabear, whose layered arrangements on the pristine 2007 album The Ghost That Carried Us Away came off like a cross between Nashville’s Lambchop and Scotland’s Belle and Sebastian. Sin Fang Bous may appeal to Seabear fans, but they shouldn’t expect a retread-a pop core and Sigfússon’s wispy voice are the only prominent common features between the two.

The most memorable track on Clangour is its opener, “Advent in Ives Garden,” which has a wide-eyed hopefulness that approaches, but doesn’t quite cross the line into cloying preciousness. It’s an apt introduction for the approach of Sin Fang Bous, using an upbeat tempo, a dense arrangement with sprouting details, and 8-bit electronic flourishes atop a strummy foundation. Each track seems to have at least a few peculiar elements lurking and toying with the listener’s perception and consciousness, including anything from slide whistles, vocals dissolving into static, or processed guitar squeals. Sounds seem to reside in either of two camps: the normal (like string strums, beats, and piano twinkles) and the uncommon. As instruments drop out toward the end of songs, details are revealed that were there all along, underscoring just how concentrated the songs are. In this age when software has made it affordable to make high-quality multi-track recordings, one might be tempted to lean toward the philosophy that more equals good; fortunately, Sigfússon’s sense of balance and sonic curiosity help make Clangour work more often than not.

Extra Golden
Thank You Very Quickly
(Thrill Jockey)

First, there was Golden, an American indie-guitar-precision-rawk band, before member Ian Eagleson went into a different direction with the band’s outgrowth, Extra Golden. As an ethnomusicologist, Eagleson became well acquainted with the mellifluous and danceable guitar-based Kenyan music called benga, and he befriended western Kenyan Otieno Jagwasi and formed a musical partnership that sounded little like the post-math-what-have-you rock of Golden. After Otieno succumbed to liver failure in 2005, Extra Golden now has gelled with a lineup of Eagleson and Alex Minoff (also of Golden) with Kenyans Onyango Wuod Omari (drums/vocals) and Opiyo Bilongo (vocals/guitar). Possibly the group’s best known track is “Obama,” which was actually not made as a cash-in track during the height of Obama-mania. It was recorded in 2006 as an aural thank-you note to the Senator, who had helped the African members of the band obtain visas to perform in the states.

The outfit’s third full-length album, Thank You Very Quickly, has another expression of gratitude, although the circumstances this time are more serious; early last year, bloody riots erupted in Kenya after an uncertain election, and the album’s vibrant title track is a direct message to fans who provided donations to help the band’s families escape the turmoil. The group is at its best on tracks like “Gimakiny Akia,” with flowing guitar interplay, a steadfast increasingly snare-heavy drumming style, and structural support from an organ and a bass guitar. It’s an incredibly tight ensemble with a seemingly psychic mind-link during certain passages, such as the one toward the end of the song, where everything stays perfectly in line throughout an insistent tempo increase. There’s a consistent, straightforward approach on the album, whose only few awkward moments are the ones, such as the number “Fantasies of the Orient,” that are sung in English; it’s an album that springs forth with a irrepressible spirit and sentiment that’s clear, regardless of language.