Reviews
- Interviews
2008
Heathen Harvest: CD Reviews
Deep Blue Recordings brings us the new release by
The Arid Sea. After several CDr and compilation appearances
the Seattle based band finally presented a long play in the
year 2005. It is fresh sounding and surprisingly good, yet
has not reaped what they have sown. The Arid Sea remains a
largely unknown band and seems to have moved in live acts
pretty locally. It is strange, since the promotion work is
done: they have appeared in magazines, played with well-known
bands and presented an excellent record. Yet they will always
have a drawback which I am extremely grateful for. They are
too original for the current dark scene. They are not strictly
measured by only one style, one look and one, boring and unimpressive
monotone aspect. This doesn’t mean that each songs makes
no sense with the other – it simply means that they
are not slaves to modern musical divisions and have chosen
to do what they are motivated by. Their sound is unique, regular,
and highly emotional. It draws from early dark pop material,
especially in the drum work, and adds a darker quality through
guitars and, especially the voice. Out of the 80s influence
clearly sewn through their own textures, they choose the mostly
UK sound of many bands that have become more of a reference
to indie, shoegazers and dream pop than strictly gothic: you
can hear a Chameleon’s voice, Echo and the Bunnymen’s
modulations, Comsat Angels, And Also the Trees, early Pink
Turns Blue… I am sure by their myspace references (the
amazing guitar genius of Big Black, many great folk bands,
some classics), that The Arid Sea can boast of an excellent
music culture.
‘Mercy Killing’ is perhaps one of my
favorite songs of the record, with a dense bass line opening
an epic drum work song. The construction is full of longing;
the voice line is wrapped into the instruments in a simple,
overpowering way. It is a perfect mixture of dark rock, post-punk,
nihilism & attitude. They call themselves Indie-Post-Punk-Death-Rock-Goth-Folk-Garage-Bat-Cave,
but they truly are mostly dark, desperate and sometimes sadly
angry rock. With songs like ‘Passage’ and the
delicate, guitar line conversing with the bass and surrounded
by the crashing percussion you can almost imagine you live
your life in a late 80s moment you had thought you’d
lost forever. The elements are mostly the same throughout
the record: a clear, nostalgic guitar that glides over each
song with melancholic notes; a thick bass that many times
picks up the spotlight, outstanding drum work and the sensitive
vocals, inhabited by strong lyrics and pure emotion. Sometimes
a piano appears, moving deeper into a fickle, evocative place.
In many songs the instrumentation is so powerful that the
voice becomes relegated to a secondary position, sometimes
entering the song as a rambler passing by and in others, the
melody goes Curesque in a theatrical, torn way.
‘New Roman Twilight’ follows its own
path and leaves its own traces. The Arid Sea have an impressive
resilience to make their own mark on a music world that is
not paying attention to individual talent and is moving, as
cattle always in the same direction. More that two years have
passed since this record came out; I hope they have not passed
in vain. I expect many great things about this subtle, discreet
band. ~ Isis
Heathen
Harvest
2008
Losing Today: Singled Out - missive 154
http://www.myspace.com/thearidsea - personally I
feel its always a good way to endear yourself by having your
Top 20 friends lists populated by such exalted names as Throbbing
Gristle, Nurse with Wound, Rudimentary Peni, Subhumans, Sol
Invictus, legendary pink dots and perhaps the odd ones out
in this list - the Chameleons. Yet its to the latter that
this Seattle based combo most easily identify - both ‘life
is brief life is long’ and ‘weighed against a
feather’ (culled from their ‘new roman twig light’
set) both mainline into the darker more sombrely reflective
territories found on Burgess and Co’s Statik era work
simultaneous cross threading its DNA with the claustrophobically
tenseness of ’pornography’ era Cure fused with
early career And Also the Trees, the latter track in particular
sounding scarred and bruised with a suffocating repose as
the melodies twist and slow waltz to coil around you with
their detached melancholia. Personal favourite though is the
live take of the numbingly beautiful ’comfort in the
cold’ which to these ears has a definite feel and texture
in common in common with the early 4AD / Situation 2 catalogue.
~ Mark
Losing
Today
2007
Profane Existence: Issue #53 - CD Reviews
The Arid Sea New Roman Twilight CD
This album is probably most unlike anything else
usually reviewed in this zine. To get the ex-member thing
out of the way, The Arid Sea contains Joey Maas on drums of
State of the Union, maybe a band more familiar to some here.
When I listened to this one, I really felt a gothy overtone
to the overall groove of the songs, yet without the usual
pretension. Drums that remind me of Rainer Maria, yet darken
and gloomy lyrics, shimmering/ringing guitar and strained,
searching vocals. This really defies an easy categorization,
which is why I felt at a loss for describing The Arid Sea.
Something about this CD really sticks to me, in a good way.
Some of the standout songs, Life is Brief… Life is Long,
Mercy Killing, Hanging, and An Image In The Flames. In an
interview, they described themselves as Indie-Post-Punk-Death-Rock-Goth-Folk-Garage-Bat-Cave,
which sounds about right to my ears. Definitely a band to
keep an eye on, they have something quite special here and
it’ll be interesting to see where this road leads.
(crudos)
Profane
Existence
2007
Drop Dead Magazine: Issue #2 - CD Reviews
The Arid Sea - New Roman Twilight
Gorgeous and atmospheric, full of that rambling post-punk
spirit that so many early 4AD bands had. 'Life is Brief...Life
is Long' starts off the album, with fluttering guitar against
a rolling drumbeat. 'Weighed Against a Feather' is more melancholy,
and 'Mercy Killing' builds up towers of sound in anticipation
of a demolition, only to sink back down again. 'Ringing' is
soft and light, full of shoegazing sympathies. 'Passage' is
the happiest song on here, with singer Isaac sounding almost
triumphant, as if some glorious obstacle had been conquered.
'The Moon Follows Mercury' continues in this vein; though
similar in tone to the rest of the album, the veil of melancholia
seems ready to lift. But no, 'Hanging' trips us up and sends
us spinning back into tearful territory. 'An Image in the
Flames' makes us think everything's okay again before 'Closing
In' starts to sway and rock us off into the ether, and then
snatching us close and rattling our bones a bit. Music for
wind-blown evenings and grey, rainy afternoons.
Daniel Jones
Drop
Dead Magazine
2007
Feb 1st - Lithium Radio: CD Reviews
The Arid Sea sprang from the mind of Isaac Aubrey
back in 1994 and existed as a solo act for the next 8 years,
the music comprised of a drum machine, acoustic guitars and
vocals, among other instruments of noise. The recordings were
distributed mainly on cassette tapes and featured a variety
of guest artists and friends. And now after 3 years of hiring
band members and trimming the fat down to a trio they have
self–released their full-length debut album New Roman
Twilight.
The album New Roman Twilight it’s an amalgam
of the movie Dagon and The Cure, the music and vocals are
obviously heavily influenced by The Cure. The first track,
Life is Brief…Life is Long, is an anguish filled balled
about the duality of life, maybe that’s not the right
term, but the song articulates the emotions most of us have
about life. We are ready to carry on with our life but we
know we are going to die and we are, for the most part, ready
for that also. The next track is called Weighed Against a
Feather, I will admit that I don’t quite get this song,
while listening to it I get a lot of fantasy-like imagery,
but the lines “The blade goes deep, A greater plan,
Bittersweet, Nails in hands, Nails in feet, For the heavens”
give me the idea that there are some faith related tones associated
with the song.
The whole CD is pretty good and both of the songs
can be heard on The Arid Sea Myspace page, linked below, go
give a listen and if you what hear pick up the album, you
won’t be disappointed.
Original text found here: http://parasitegods.blogspot.com/2007/02/arid-sea-new-roman-twilight.html
2006
Drop Dead Magazine: Issue #1 - New Band
Spotlight
Sounding like early 4AD (a more lush Past Seven Days
springs to mind), The Arid Sea create beautiful melodies of
simple guitar riffs and rolling drum beats, building a momentum
of sound that crashes around the brain. So far as I know,
they’ve only played shows in their native Seattle, but
with the release of their first album, New Roman Twilight,
sensible folk will b spreading their sound far and wide. –
Lakini Malich
2006
From The Mick - A review of New Roman
Twilight by Mick Mercer
God forbid I should ever aim to please but I can’t
deny that after a weekend of more personal revelations it’s
reassuring to get back to the music, and I have something
wonderful to tell you about which you should put at the top
of your shopping list (and craftily forge onto the top of
anyone else’s you can access).
Very cool, very interesting - a subtle blend of gloom
and sensitivity brings a superior indie song writing feel
into Goth territory, which usually creates something interesting.
The playful, teasing drums that burst throughout ‘Life
Is Brief, Life Is Long’ are equalled by gently shimmering
guitar and succulent shadowy synth to really draw you in,
while the ache in the vocals have a pensive quality which
means you’re not going to have any egos crashing out
spewing preposterous twaddle, although the lyrics rebuff too
much investigation. Musically, it rises and glides wonderfully,
then some burnished bass weaves through a slower ‘Weighed
Against A Feather’ to beef up simpler drums. The
guitar creates warmth behind pained vocals and there’s
such a classy crump to these drums you know the recording
has caught them as close to live as is possible. It bulges
with a quiet vitality, close in spirit to someone like Heart’s
Fail.
Mini-surges push through the glory of ‘Mercy Killing’
as they summon up their own energy waves, with some brilliantly
guitar surfing over passionate but controlled vocals and together
they built up to a tight climax that then meets the brightly
seeping ‘Ringing’, as a more simple tone
overcomes vocal self-recrimination in an almost relaxed setting.
Then these lugubrious drums start to stir ‘Passage’
and tingling guitars remain clear and bold while the vocals
move frantically from side to side, then soar. ‘The
Moon Follows Mercury’ is polite, with beautiful guitar
and bass once more offering a neat counteracting influence
on circumspect vocal doldrums, and the riveting guitar really
does start to staple itself to your head, as together they
forge a brackish path which they drag you down, dovetailing
neatly into the funereal stamp of ‘Hanging’
but here the song remains open and strolls with real vigour
and poise, assuming an almost placid strength, yet with a
robust candour. Even when going into slow territory you’re
never close to anything drowsy.
‘An Image In The Flames’ is fantastic,
as the instruments cautiously build and start to glow, peak
then fall back again to a slow end in what is a superbly modest
piece, then ‘Closing In’ tickles itself up
into a lightly raging up and down pattern, with a gnashing
sense of defiant spirit, somewhat thrown sideways by a voiceover
and then ending enigmatically, which is understandable. Here
we have a band whose main core has worked in isolation for
nearly a decade but now has a brilliant band starting to feel
their way, and feeling it brilliantly as though they have
genetically modified fingers.
Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner. Waving not drowning,
but certain in sorrow.
-Mick Mercer
www.mickmercer.com
2006
From the Morbid Outlook webzine
- a review of New Roman Twilight by MM
This album brings me back to that dreamy dark
rock of the early to mid-90s; it’s a style I don’t
hear much these days amid the heavy electro releases. It feels
like early Faith & Disease, with male vocals. Think of a
mellow, downtempo Franz Ferdinand.
Original text found here:
http://www.morbidoutlook.com/home/section/home.html
2002
Roughly translated version of
the write-up in Gothic Magazine - Author Unknown
(I'd love to get a more solid translation
of this if anyone out there would like to take a crack at it.
A link to the original text follows the review.)
In a time when the market is inundated by commercially
directed productions, it's harder to filter out works that are
able to touch one with their uniqueness amid the faceless mass
of volumes. While some years ago another living cassettes underground
bloomed, where new appeared or of Labels yet undetected pearls,
these can be found today actually only in the virtual, worldwide
web. The internet likes to stand makes itself to be sure in
the call to be used just in the music area predominantly to
the prohibited exchange of protected works, but who with open
eyes and ears on the search for pieces of yet unknown formations,
that can discover here much new and profitable value.
A positive example for this is represented
by the American project THE ARID SEA in these dark and dim times
with its dry melancholy quality. On its mp3.com site, they made
an entire album available for downloading. Ten tune-filled,
sensitive songs, with dreamy melodies of fragile beauty. With
high skill, it understood the volumes(work-songs), can be arranged
to catch in pieces of a timeless feeling of being lost in a
mixture made out of Dark Folk and Gothic skirt, which lets arise
displaced memories of old songwriting qualities of AND ALSO
THE TREES or TWILIGHT RITUAL. THE ARID SEA invites at the same
time just as little as the aforesaid groups to a visit of the
dance scene, what lies perhaps on that, that the largest creative
push came during a stay in Alaska. Accordingly its songs also
fit better to the cold season in contrast to the volumes out
of Seattle which both home leagues of the feeling of being born
again in a warm room, however, these are songs that know how
to mediate between the warm and the cold, and lets simultaneous
before the internal eye anticipate the icy storms on the far
side of the room.
Originally in 1995 the group was established
under the name of DARK SOLACE, limited publishing became the
first sound-recording medium, one cassette with the title "The
Onset Of Night", found the songs during its purported Alaska
stay to its actual style and new name. As a reminiscence of
the original project, the initial project name became the title
of its actual first singles, the CD "in Dark Solace"
which THE ARID SEA banishes first directly on its live performances
- with the friendly volume THE BLUE HOUR, which is also found
on mp3.com, played it at the same time together under the name
THE DAWN in Seattle also in the before program of SOL INVICTUS
- and now over mp3.com. One can download the entire work on
its site, which has no flat rate, that the total album inclusive
Artwork should acquire in view of the download-costs emerging
at the same time immediately.
The exceptional pieces, that are discovered
on "in Dark Solace", belongs next to the Opener "From
The Hiding" which moves in atmospheric Wave-railroads and
at the same time at the "Meta"-Time of PINK CAMOUFLAGE
BLUE remembered, also that between SOL INVICTUS´ Neo Folk
and shaman notebook "Dawn And Sorrow" to be established
flute playing to the dreamy "The Weight Of Fear".
Popularity is always larger after a break in
work, in the mean time, THE ARID SEA itself under open black
"surfers"(goth internet surfers) could delight in,
gathered Mastermind Isaac Aubrey a new Line-Up around itself
in order to refine some old pieces with the aid of better technologies
as well as in order to make itself be receptive by new material.
In this context would be allowed to be for visitor of its side
of interest that the Rerecordings should replace the previous
versions, so that one, zumindestens has presently, yet the opportunity
to secure itself the old receptions for a later comparison.
One who listened to "in Dark Solace", that not certainly
will be able to doubt that THE ARID SEA will reach again many
interested also with its new pieces.
Original
text found here: http://www.kleinertod.de/artikel/thearidsea.html
2001
Starvox review of In Dark
Solace ~ Reviewed by Mathew
There isn't much of an alternative in the 'Goth'
scene anymore. You pretty much have every band following an
electro path, moving further and further away from a 'rock'
based structure. That is certainly not the case here with Seattle's
The Arid Sea, who describe their sound as "memories of
being trapped underwater." This is about as genuine a Goth
Rock band as they come. There aren't any dance floor fillers.
Instead, there are ten well though out, well arranged, and thought
provoking songs. Moody and dreary in their atmospheres, sometimes
a slow Cure-esque feel animates the songs, such as "From
The Hiding" while a dark almost apocalyptic folk style
carries "Through Lion's Eyes." The combination of
acoustics and flute had me thinking of Sol Invictus.
"Dawn & Sorrow" and "At
The Foot Of A Grave" stand as my two favourite tracks.
The guitar reminds me slightly of And Also The Trees, who stand
out in my mind as the ultimate and most important underrated
Gothic rock band…ever. "Fade Away" is another
really cool track, which pairs the buoyant acoustics with a
subtle guitar crunch, atop a slight waltzy rhythm. Every track
features smooth and deep male vocals, with just enough reverb
and delay to produce a ghostly effect. His voice reminds me
somewhat of Christopher Grey of Gossamer, if that can give you
any idea what to expect. He is a great and confident singer,
with an exceptional amount of feeling in his voice.
The closing track is a thoroughly disturbing
ambient track. Indeed, a very eerie and strange song, with distant
moans, backward tape loops, tribal drumming, Lovecraftian flutes
and all sorts of odd effects. I was never one for ambient music
because it makes me restless and bored. But this seemed to have
one of the more important elements missing from nearly every
ambient band I have ever heard…emotion. I got chills from
this one and actually just sat and stared blankly, letting the
song sink in for its eight-minute duration. I couldn't have
done otherwise if I wanted to I don't think.
But besides the grand and severely enthralling
exit, The Arid Sea have nine works of traditional gloomy Gothic
ambience that reminded me of the early to mid nineties, back
when it seemed that every major city had at least two or three
good local Goth rock bands, and these bands all had timeless
demo tapes. This has that same special and intimate quality.
A warm production and overall depressive beauty that just doesn't
seem to be a priority any more in most bands that claim to belong
in this genre. This is a gorgeous collection of reflective and
brooding songs. Check them out at Mp3.co, as the entire album
of "In Dark Solace" is available for streaming and
download. Then take it from there…
Original text found here: http://www.starvox.net/crypt/2june.htm
2000
Review of the show we played
as The Dawn with Sol Invictus.
Reviewed by Steve Weatherholt
Sol Invictus / Kommunity FK / Sumerland / The
Dawn
@
Graceland
February 12, 2000
Seattle, WA
Marky Mark Teppo and I ventured into the once-human
pit of Graceland (formerly known as the Off Ramp Café)
to check out The World Serpent band Sol Invictus. This is as
close to Death in June as I will ever get in Seattle. I had
to at least tolerate the apocalyptic death folk that these guys
have been tagged with. The first band up was The Dawn, a local
act consisting of acoustic and electric guitar plus keyboards.
Creating a yearning, wistful elegance, they performed rather
well for an opening act.
Next were Sumerland, replacing Kismet, who
had money troubles and had to drop out of the tour. With a six-member
band and some pretty cool percussive instruments, Sumerland
came off as a baroque-sounding solo Peter Murphy. Kommunity
FK came out thrashing with their brand of industrial rock/metal;
I thought they were quite good, except the guitars could have
been more imaginative. The woman guitar player reminded me of
someone from 45 Grave, to which this could have compared, but
with more of a rock 'n' roll vibe to it.
Finally, the band we had paid our dough for
came out and proceeded to flatten me with their set. I have
heard recordings, but displayed live this is the only way to
appreciate this form of music. Sol Invicus consisted of amplified
acoustic guitar and violin, flute, electric bass and keyboards.
The keyboardist would also play a single floor tom and coronet.
The crowd showed a rousing enthusiasm for Sol Invictus, which
launched into their set of beautiful death folk. Tony's vocals
followed the yin and yang plus minus style over the top of some
of the wildest violin I have ever seen. Throw in some beautiful
female backing harmonies and some well-timed drumbeats to leave
you with this bleak overflowing feeling of despair and anguish.
The music mesmerized and drew me in, creating images in my head
that always led me back to thinking about what is going on inside
their heads. Trying to visualize what it was or is that brought
this music out from them...the circumstances that led to this...what
transpired to lead Tony to break out of the Death in June mold
to create this apocalyptic death folk.
Original text found here: http://www.earpollution.com/vol2/mar00/live/live.html
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