{"id":177,"date":"2012-01-25T11:37:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T11:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/douglascowie.com\/?p=177"},"modified":"2012-01-25T11:37:08","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T11:37:08","slug":"music-review-imbogodom-and-they-turned-not-when-they-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/?p=177","title":{"rendered":"Music Review: Imbogodom “And They Turned Not When They Left”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Imbogodom And They Turned Not When They Left <\/em>Thrill Jockey<\/a><\/p>\n

This album, recorded using analogue tape loops at BBC\u2019s Bush House and sounds recorded in Dungeness in Kent, starts out with a single big kerrong from Big Ben, and hot on its tail comes an ominous drone worthy of a David Lynch film.\u00a0 \u201cBorogmog\u2019s Clock\u201d has been set in motion: bells chime, different sounds echo across one another, and the tape crackles almost inaudibly.\u00a0 Something unsettling is moving across London.<\/p>\n

Alexander Tucker and Daniel Beban aren\u2019t only interested in shaping found noises into soundscapes, however: \u201cSlate Grey Light\u201d propels forward on a strumming riff and long vowel-heavy vocal lines before partially dissolving into another ominous drone, \u201cEtchum Buoy.\u201d\u00a0 Over the course of the album a tension forms both across and between the tracks like \u201cSlate Grey Light,\u201d \u201cWindow Faces,\u201d the haunting \u201cHeir Looms,\u201d \u201cRed Brick Roundhouse,\u201d \u201cRubbings\u201d and \u201cPillars of Ash,\u201d which begin to form themselves into structured songs without ever quite realizing that form, or before splintering away\u2014and there\u2019s another layer of tension just in that\u2014and the tracks, like the opener, \u201cEchum Buoy, \u201d \u201cThe Passing Presence,\u201d \u201cNuclear Wind,\u201d and \u201cI Am Here, I Am Gone,\u201d that operate more as soundscapes or experiments, or something in between soundscape and song.\u00a0 That tension, held together by the waxing and waning drones, which come in a variety of pitches, and repetitions of sounds and themes, give the sense of a narrative to \u201cAnd They Turned Not When They Went\u201d; but what\u2019s the story, and where is it taking us?\u00a0 The answer isn\u2019t clear, and nor is it supposed to be: the phone call and footsteps from \u201cWelcome Away\u201d only deepen the unsettling mystery, and translate it into satellite bleeps from space.\u00a0 But answers aren\u2019t necessarily what narratives are supposed to be about.\u00a0 \u201cAnd They Turned Not When They Went\u201d maps a compelling journey that lingers in your ears and on your mind, and doesn\u2019t easily shake itself off, even when the final track disappears into disconcerting silence.\u00a0 Repeated listening isn\u2019t so much recommended as required.<\/p>\n

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