Sickoakes is a six-piece experimental rock formation
based in Stockholm, Sweden. Seawards, their
debut album, published on the excellent Type Records,
follows the release of an early recording of Wedding
Rings & Bullets In The Same Golden Shrine on
net label Pleasedosomething and a split twelve-inch
with Krautrock act Audionom for Mothertrucker. Operating
within a totally instrumental capacity, Sickoakes avoid
the generic pitfalls of the genre by deliberately setting
themselves apart from the post-rock crowd and establishing
a musical narrative that echoes the sweeping orchestral
blows of Sigur Rós
or Godspeed and the rough etches of Mogway. Yet, Sickoakes
are anything but copycats. Centred around Mats and Simon
on guitars, David on bass and Erik on drums, with Jonas
and Jacob on saxophones, the band’s sound is incredibly
layered, detailed and textured. Melodies gently rise
from deep and sombre valleys and build up momentum,
as orchestrations become more imposing, eventually reaching
dramatic codas before dying down in clouds of smoke.
Very much like Sigur
Rós, Sickoakes have an acute understanding
of melodic structures and know how to considerably affect
the mood of a piece with only the most subtle and elusive
tricks. This rare faculty allows the band to venture
out of their safety zone and remain perfectly in control
of every last element. The flow of each of the seven
compositions collected here remains perfectly constant
as the band apply layer after layer of sound. The album
opens with the gentle and delicate Driftwood,
which clearly defines Sickoakes’ softer register,
but it is with the stunning ten-minute Taking The
Stairs Instead Of The Elevator that this album
takes off properly. Although it seems at first as if
the band never quite manages to work up enough sweat
for a real build up, it is exactly this frustrated expectation,
exacerbated by the constant repetition of the main melodic
theme, that the band refine the atmospheric tones of
the piece and hold it together. They apply a very similar
process to the beautiful Missiles & Mammals,
yet it appears to hold very differently due to the much
shorter span of the track. On Oceans On Hold,
Sickoakes present a far more contrasted set of melodies
and ambiences. The track begins with gentle waves of
guitar melodies, but it takes a whole new dimension
past the two and a half minute mark when the guitars
grow sharper and more abrasive and the drums and bass
become more prominent, before everything slows down
again as the band reassemble the melodic patterns once
again.
It is with the two parts of Wedding Rings &
Bullets… that Seawards reaches its peak though.
While the first part is a subtle and delicate piece,
the second part develops over twenty minutes, taking
many shapes, textures and substances along the way.
This is Sickoakes at their most cinematic and convincing.
Freed for a moment of the constraints of time, the band
can fully concentrate on the notion of space and let
the music take its natural course, right to the point
when it refuses to die and continue to convulse way
beyond its defined section.
With Godspeed showing no real sign of life at present
and Sigur Rós
failing to take the magic of Ágætis
Byrjun or (
) further, Seawards reveals a band in full
control of its art, working melodies in total cohesion
with arrangements and atmospheric elements to create
a magnificent, if not entirely original, piece of work.
Seawards remains a real treat for the ear and
confidently introduces Sickoakes to the world.
4.5/5 |
