Pros: Art-metal, genre-transcending modern masterpiece with the feel of a dark concept album.
Cons: Damn near impossible to find if you live east of Idaho.
The Bottom Line: Glyph is an album beyond comparison, in both its style and masterful execution. Get ahold of this CD any way possible; you won't be disappointed!
Glyph, released by Elemental Records (an indie label out of Eugene, OR) in 1995, is a lush, varied and surprisingly well-assembled semi-conceptual album by one of the Pacific Northwest's most beloved independent art-metal acts, Floater. Despite having no discernible plot or storyline (some people say it represents a day or a year in the life of the band members, but even that idea is easily challenged), the seamless fashion in which tracks flow together and the obvious attention paid to the order in which the songs appear imparts a feeling of purpose.
The overall "feel" of Glyph is dark and moody, without being pretentious (read: gothic). The best rock bands have always shown a human side to their music (think about Pink Floyd and Tool), and Floater are no exception.
Track one, The Knowing Dirge, is a dark, cavernous song with a definite tribal sound. This song is also where listeners are introduced to Rob Wynia's distinctively melancholic voice. For many people I have known, it has taken a bit to get used to the sound of it but all of these people can agree that it is wonderfully expressive and fits the music well. Deep, rolling drumbeats and haunting, layered vocals are the driving forces of this song.
To drive home track 1's tribal feel, track two (...But Rain Never Came) smoothly transitions into a hypnotic, primal chant with a pulsating drumbeat holding the song together. Images of fire and darkness come to my mind whenever I hear it. The track ends somewhat jarringly with the beginning of Cinema, one of the band's biggest local radio hits.
Cinema is a classically styled heavy metal song, complete with screeching vocals near the beginning and a driving guitar riff that gets stuck in your head and won't let you sleep at night. Listening to it in the context of the rest of the album, one gets the feeling that Floater is simply saying 'we can do that too' to all of the generic metal outfits roaming about these days. There's a reason I chose "art metal" as the defining term to categorize Floater. That reason is that they are a metal band that have completely transcended and mastered their own genre. Floater is beyond an ordinary metal experience, which just makes the head-banging energy of Cinema all the more fun to hear.
Track four is another connecting piece without lyrics. It has a couple of suitably creepy vocal samples and plenty of ambient effects (a la track 2 of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon") held together mostly by a pleasantly labyrinthine bass line.
Floater's bass lines are worth mentioning, because the lead singer also happens to be the bassist. The net result of this happy coincidence is that the bass plays a much more prominent role in Floater's music than in many other bands. In fact, at their legendary live shows, Rob's bass playing often takes center stage just out of its sheer level of technical skill. (Floater aren't afraid to experiment with the bass, either. One song off of their first album, Sink, reputedly uses a fretless bass with a screwdriver as a slide!)
If I were to continue in the vein I am in now, this review would become a book unto itself, so I'll try to make things short from here on out. Track five is a funky (yet not at all brash) piece with a nice classic quiet-verse, loud-chorus sound called All the Stories But One. Track six, the indie-radio hit Dead, is a classic metal riff-driven number, in many respects like track three.
At track seven, the album, while not exactly happy before, begins to take a turn for the depressed and somewhat twisted. Intermezzo is a slow, short, minimalist instrumental piece, with a single guitar playing simple minor arpeggios accompanied by the sound of rushing wind. Where the other non-vocal tracks up to this track had been "connectors" between songs, Intermezzo is nore of a "disconnector from the first half of the album.
Track eight (Isolation) is, in a word, depressed. I have found very few songs better than this one to listen to when I am feeling down and out.
Track nine, Clean Plastic Baby, is a nine-minute "epic" whose lyrics are downright creepy ("clean the mind of this plastic baby," and so forth). Every time I listen to it, I come up with new ideas about what the song's subject is, but ultimately that not knowing for sure is the pleasure of Clean Plastic Baby.
The Face of Order follows on track ten. This is your typical "Cops Suck" metal song, except for the fact that it actually paints a twisted caricature of a particular type of officer, rather than just blaring, "cops suck." This adds a little depth to the song, but more important is the return of the sound heard on Cinema and Dead, signifying a new direction for the rest of the album.
Track eleven, Pet, is a slow number that is hauntingly beautiful. Floater have been compared to some goth bands, and after listening to this song with it's more-than-melancholy sound and lyrics dealing with a decidedly unhealthy relationship, it's not hard to see why. Floater are decidedly not goth, however, and Pet doesn't ever fall into the cliches that plague so many bands of that genre.
Track twelve, Persecutor, is my personal favorite. It is a relatively upbeat hodgepodge of elements from earlier tracks, mixed together into a great rock song with one of the best guitar solos in the genre's history. It is also one of the best daytime driving songs I've heard.
Bottle is the name of the quiet, folksy track thirteen. It is a very simple song with a single guitar and one vocal part. I cannot say for sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this song is sung by guitarist Pete Cornett, as the voice is slightly different from Rob's regular sound. Either way, it is a pleasant, short song that leaves you totally unprepared for the beginning of the next song.
The Sad Ballad of Danny Boy (no relation to either Chumbawamba's popular drinking song or the traditional ballad) is the uncharacteristically energetic track fourteen. It is a rare "funny" song that shows off Floater's dark sense of humor. This song doesn't seem too impressive just hearing it on the album, but it is by far the best-loved and most-requested live song of all time, for its amazing energy, powerful beat and easily-memorized lyrics.
The last real song on the CD, track fifteen, is titled "Crawl Into You." The first few minutes are slow and simple, with Dark Side of the Moon-like tone shifts. This part of the song is filled with samples of Jack Nicholson from the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Once the lyrics begin, they continue for about one-third of the song's total length. The last (and in my opinion, coolest) part of the song comes after the vocals are finished and the funky, blues-rock guitar parts come into play. This last part slowly fades out into track sixteen, the sound of a finished LP skipping through the last groove. It ends with the vinyl scratching to a halt.
It is only at the end that one realizes what a long, strange trip this album is, and only through multiple listenings that it can be truly appreciated. This kind of depth and clarity won Glyph a preliminary Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Performance when it came out (check www.floatermusic.com if you don't believe me). In my opinion, it should have had a category all its own, and it should have won.
I have been a fan of Floater for several years, starting with this album when I was sixteen. Ever since I listened to Glyph, I have been a die-hard follower of Floater and I have never been let down. I cannot recommend Glyph enough!
One last thing I have learned about them over the course of time is that it is impossible to compare these sonic magicians to any particular band or style. I always find it a kick to log on to UBL.com and read the list of "Bands like Floater," none of which sound much like Floater at all. They are utterly unique and that is part of what makes them great. Glyph is a wondrous example of that. Final recommendation: if you can find it, buy it... if not, search harder!
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