brenron's Full Review: Floating World by Anathallo
Adam Laclave, lead singer of Macrosick, made a list recently of bands who are so good they make him want to just give up music. For me, Anathallo is one of those bands. The level of musicianship on this album makes for a listening experience that can only be duplicated by listening to the full album. From beginning to end, you will be transported to a world that is strange and beautiful, haunting and wonderful.
An interesting thing about this album is how much Japan seems to influence the lyrics. Four of the songs are based on a Japanese folk tale about a dog who digs up some gold for his master in a neighbor's yard. Some of the lyrics are in Japanese, including one entire song. I don't know much about traditional Japanese music, but likely some of the musical ideas are drawn from there.
The album starts with an intro consisting of the sounds of something like pieces of wood being hit together with something humming in the background. It goes for about 50 seconds and seamlessly transitions into the first song.
Genessaret (going out over 30,000 fathoms of water), a slow song with some acoustic picking and poetic, strange lyrics. This is where we first hear the background vocals, which have a different effects than most, as the give an atsmospheric to the song, with what sounds like three or four part harmony in places. It fades into the next track with the backing vocals repeating the eerie line "Stuck and stinging/I keep rolling" over and over.
Hoodwink starts with just the vocals over some percussion, before picking up into more of an upbeat song. There's a nice part in the middle with some clapping along with the lyrics, making for a dark mood. There's also a nice trumpet solo, accomponied with what sounds like strings, making for a nice build to the song's climax, without being cheesy. The song strips down to piano as the song ends, as the final lyrics are sung. The song as a whole seems to deal with trying to make up for the mistakes of the past and "make ourselves good again".
By Number is in 3/4 or 6/8 time. Either way, the tempo swings back and forth with a prominant trumpet and some bells that make for a pretty musical backdrop. This is the first occurrance of lyrics in Japanese. The song goes from being dark at some points to seeming lighter and more fun at others, especially with the joyful shouting at the end of the song.
Dokkoise House (with face covered) quiets things down again. I don't know what "dokkoise" means, but apparently this song is based on a Japanese folk song that farmers would sing. It's piano based, with the lyrics being almost whispered at first. The backing vocals sing the Japanese lyrics in a sort of round, with with fun shouts of "o hana" in the background, which keeps a looser, lighter feel. The song builds to the end and keeps enough variation to keep from overstaying it's welcome. It is, after all, one of the longest tracks on the album, clocking in at 6 minutes.
Hanasakajiji (four: a great wind, more ash), this is my favorite song on the album. It's the fourth part of the aforementioned series of songs based on a Japanese folk tale. It starts out with drums and guitar, then drops away to a more stripped down song, with only light instrumentation. Then it changes time signature as handclapping and background harmonies kick in. Then, in yet another change, it goes to a softer, gentler mood and there's some actual female vocals taking over for a soothing and smooth build to the last section of the song, which suddenly drops to just vocals to finish out the song. The character here seems to be disposing of someone's ashes, and thinking about their death.
Hanasakajiji (one: the angry neighbor) kicks in seamlessly from the last track, with a more swaying feel to the song, the backing vocals are at their best here, as they kick in a different moments, taking over like a sort of choir. This song is obviously from the point of view of the dog in the story. Then there's the odd statement that someone has been killed at the end of the song. At that point the song gets quieter and fades out ominously.
Inn (howling), this is basically an interlude with a mournful sound to it. More of the humming noise, but this time some melancholy voices harmonize over it, sounding both beautiful and hauntingly sad.
Hanasakajiji (two: floating world) continues that haunting feeling, the character of this song appears to be recounting being burned in a fire (presumably it's the dead person from part four). At this point I believe that the dog was the one killed earlier. All of a sudden the song goes from slow and stripped down to trumpets and 3/4 time percussion, which is strange and slightly menacing sounding, then it goes back to the stripped down piano, then back to the trumpets. Sudden mood changes seem to be common for Anathallo, and they do it really well.
The Bruised Reed is supposedly based on this Bible verse, "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth." Isaiah 42:3". This song is more trumpets and piano in another 3/4 time signature. The lyrics do seem to illustrate this verse quite well, without being cliche. It's all quite poetic and beautiful. It's also the longest track on the album (6:04). There's some electronic sounds in the background later in the song which are a nice touch. The vocals grow to shouting in a delivery that sounds a bit frenetic, and it ends with trumpets, and an alarm clock, then piano, and a sudden appearence of more bells, with a tense finish.
Yuki! Yuki! Yuki! is the last interlude, and is piano accompanied by trumpet in a swaying sound to peacefully lead us into the next track.
Hanasakajiji (three: the man who made dead trees bloom) keeps the same time signature, but builds on it, and the vocal delivery is quicker, bouncing along and feeling like something from medieval music. That's the only part of the song that makes me thing of that, later sections keep the 3/4 feel, but the delivery changes. The backing vocals help to create the mood of the song, which seems to be about the dog's master, seeing his neighbor has been attacked by his dog (I assume this is why the dog is dead).
Cuckoo Spitting Blood is similar to the last song, in that it's also piano based, but there is a much darker feel to the song. There are some excellent harmonies (One of the band's strong suits) and lead guitar parts to make help the sparse feel of the song.
Kasa no Hone (the Umbrella's Bones) is entirely in Japanese. The guitar hum is back, tying this in with the other interludes, but with the almost chant-like melody, I wouldn't be surprised if this is another Japanese folk song. This is more built up than the other shorter tracks, with more prominent drums and handclaps. The lyrics seem to be repeating the plea of "don't desert me" at the end. The album ends with a repeat of the first line, and then silence.
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