Back in the 1970s, Progressive Rock reached a point where it seemed all audiences were required to do was to bear witness to the virtuoso skills of the musicians. Complex arrangements and enigmatically impenetrable lyrics added to the distance between the artists and listeners.
Fast forward four decades and you'll find a new generation of classically trained players building similarly dense layers of sonic self indulgence. The effect is to turn pop tunes into grandiose pieces designed to fill us with awe and wonderment.
Arc Iris from Providence, Rhode Island are part of this post-prog trend. Their sophomore release seems hell bent on immersing our grey matter in a veritable flood of musical intricacy. One song is very aptly titled Saturation Brain.
At their core they are a trio fronted by Jocie Adams formerly of The Low Anthem but they have numerous complementary facets and draw upon guest musicians to create an elaborate template in which her cutesy girlish voice at the centre is the simplest element. .
|
"What is reality?" is the question posed in the opening track Kaleidoscope but don't expect any answers here.
"When there's so much going on, we yearn for simplicity" says Adams but only in the sparseness of the shoegazey title track do they appear to acknowledge that less is sometimes more.
Arc Iris' website
|
