Artist: Volcano ChoirAlbum: Unmap
Year: 2009
Grade: 3 pretzels
Volcano Choir’s Unmap is another critically lauded album that has evaded me for some time now. Volcano Choir is less of a full band and more of a collaboration between the band Collections Of Colonies Of Bees (don’t worry, I’ve never heard of them either) and Justin Vernon, better known as Bon Iver, who’s For Emma, Forever Ago has highlighted Best Of The Year charts for the past two years (due to two separate releases). All these musicians are Wisconsin natives and together they’ve created an album that fits nicely into the charmingly folky reputation people associate with the Cheese State.
Or does it? While Vernon’s warm, hushed vocals set a tone of fire-side strumming and acoustic pleasantness, when you actually dig in and listen to Unmap, you realize how unusual this album really ended up being. “Island, IS” seems like a lilting little acoustic ditty until you notice the subtle keyboards squeaking in the background. “Mbira In The Morass” is much more obvious in its strangeness, as a variety of non-traditional percussive elements clank and chime away, while Vernon’s voice takes on a much more angular tone. The minute-long “Cool Knowledge” gets ripped apart halfway through by some thudding drums. “Still” actually has Auto-Tuned vocals! You wish I was kidding about that.
Unmap is secretly a very experimental record. The risks the musicians are taking are quite subtle (most of the time, Auto-Tune notwithstanding), but at least one detailed listen reveals the odd sonic complexity oozing right beneath the surface. Mercifully, few of these elements feel intentionally “challenging,” in that cerebral, confrontational kind of way. They mostly just sound like off-the-wall ideas that someone thought sounded really good within the context of the song.
Which brings us to the album’s greatest flaw. While Unmap has all these great, unusual touches, they’re grafted onto a set of songs that go virtually nowhere. Either they end up too short to stretch out completely or they just wander on for six minutes until you’re completely sick of them, no matter how many soup cans they’re using for drums. While unintelligible lyrics aren’t a bad thing in the abstract, here, they just underscore the frustrating lack of musical solid ground for the listener to stand on. Unmap is a strange sonic soup of an album, with unexpected musical elements occasionally floating through a broth of folky traditionalism. There are tasty moments, but you end up a bit frustrated once you’ve eaten all the substance and you’re left a bowlful of boring music to slurp down.
Or does it? While Vernon’s warm, hushed vocals set a tone of fire-side strumming and acoustic pleasantness, when you actually dig in and listen to Unmap, you realize how unusual this album really ended up being. “Island, IS” seems like a lilting little acoustic ditty until you notice the subtle keyboards squeaking in the background. “Mbira In The Morass” is much more obvious in its strangeness, as a variety of non-traditional percussive elements clank and chime away, while Vernon’s voice takes on a much more angular tone. The minute-long “Cool Knowledge” gets ripped apart halfway through by some thudding drums. “Still” actually has Auto-Tuned vocals! You wish I was kidding about that.
Unmap is secretly a very experimental record. The risks the musicians are taking are quite subtle (most of the time, Auto-Tune notwithstanding), but at least one detailed listen reveals the odd sonic complexity oozing right beneath the surface. Mercifully, few of these elements feel intentionally “challenging,” in that cerebral, confrontational kind of way. They mostly just sound like off-the-wall ideas that someone thought sounded really good within the context of the song.
Which brings us to the album’s greatest flaw. While Unmap has all these great, unusual touches, they’re grafted onto a set of songs that go virtually nowhere. Either they end up too short to stretch out completely or they just wander on for six minutes until you’re completely sick of them, no matter how many soup cans they’re using for drums. While unintelligible lyrics aren’t a bad thing in the abstract, here, they just underscore the frustrating lack of musical solid ground for the listener to stand on. Unmap is a strange sonic soup of an album, with unexpected musical elements occasionally floating through a broth of folky traditionalism. There are tasty moments, but you end up a bit frustrated once you’ve eaten all the substance and you’re left a bowlful of boring music to slurp down.
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