OUR BROTHER THE NATIVE
Parting Marrows
DSFAT73
Fat-Cat Records 2008
05 Tracks. 21mins28secs
Format: Digital

Close in essence to CocoRosie and Animal Collective, the first output from Our Brother The Native, Tooth & Claw, released over two years ago, already showed strong signs of creative flair, especially for a band formed by three teenagers scattered around the US, who only met in the flesh for their first live set, shortly after the album was released. They returned earlier this year with the much darker and challenging Make Amends For We Are Merely Vessels, which swapped the glittering broken folk of their previous effort for slices of tortured spaced-out post rock.

With Parting Marrows, Joshua Bertram, John-Michael Foss and Chaz Knapp return to more purely pastoral tones, but this digital-only EP marks yet another departure, this time toward slightly bohemian moods. The songs presented here are much shorter and more compact than those of Make Amends, and the dense clouds of saturated guitars and primal screams have been replaced with more peaceful acoustic brushes, where guitars and piano form the main instrumental fabric of the songs. The random samples and instruments that the trio layer over these contribute greatly to the poetic aspect of the music, and this is further enhanced by the child-like vocals which have become the band’s trademark.

While they often appear sketchy and rough, vocals are actually an important part of the music made by OBTN. Like early Animal Collective, there is an intrinsic trance-like incantatory aspect to these which gives the songs an unusual and at times totally disconcerting relief. This is particularly acute toward the end of Warm Refines, where the trio incorporate what sounds like traditional Eastern European or African tribal singing to the piece as there own vocals almost disappear in the background. Opening pieces Augural Wraith and Seminal Paws are perhaps more conventional, at least as far as ‘alternative’ music is concerned. The former is a gentle campfire song which lingers for a while before briefly building momentum toward the end, while the latter, although more deconstructed, is more elaborated and complex. The most straightforward piece on this EP is undoubtedly the heart-warming Failed Panegyric, with its wonderful sweeping chorus, but even here, OBTN continue to inject snippets of environmental sounds and smearing them all over the instrumental backdrop. The closing title track is a much more reflective affair, which continuously echoes with film dialogues in the foreground while the band drop gentle lullaby-like soft tones in the background.

Our Brother The Native continue to develop and mature in a totally unique and exciting way, and this digital only EP is a further proof that their horizon is continuously widening. This EP is in turn melancholic, emotional and uplifting, but it is, above all, completely original and fresh. Unmissable!

4.7/5

Our Brother The Native | Fat-Cat Record
Buy: iTunes

OUR BROTHER THE NATIVE
Make Amends For We Are Merely Vessels
FAT-SP15
Fat-Cat Records/Splinter Series 2008
08 Tracks. 78mins18secs

From the wild poetry of their debut, Our Brother The Native have drifted into much darker and tormented terrains with their sophomore effort. Indeed, while on Tooth And Claw, the band were found playing in the garden of CocoRosie and Animal Collective, Make Amends For We Are Merely Vessels depicts much more ghostly and gothic musical forms.

Formed in 2005 by Michigan-based John-Michael Foss and Joshua Beltram, and Californian Chaz Knapp, OBTN rapidly caught the attention of UK label Fat-Cat, and, just over a year later, released their debut album. Under their geeky appearance, the trio revealed an incredible level of sonic maturity, incorporating everything from folk and electronica to post-rock and noise. Their second album, Make Amends For We Are Merely Vessels pushes the boundaries much further. Ambitious, bold and dense, the album, which, despites only counting eight tracks, spreads over almost eighty minutes, with the shortest track clocking at just over six minutes and four others reaching well over the ten minute mark, puts to shame the effort of more established bands. The striking, and slightly misleadingly titled opening track, Rejoice, is a lingering epic which reverberates from its gentle opening right through to the screamed vocals and into the spiritual élans of a choir in its middle section before turning into a beautiful ethereal formation in its second half, bringing up contrasting heavenly tones and dark earthy moods together. To accentuate the effect, vocals are kept firmly at the back of the mix all throughout the album, coating them in layers of electronics, noise and distortions, recalling in part the process adopted by Japanese outfit and label mates Xinlisupreme, which they had themselves sourced in early Jesus And Mary Chain and Sonic Youth and tainted with occasional Aphex brushes.

But while Xinlisupreme’s outputs often favoured harsh and abrasive noise backdrops, OBTN opt for more elaborate structures. The superb We Are The Living builds up momentum from its subdued opening sequence to its majestic finale, without ever loosing its melodic appeal. As They Fall Beneath Us, Trees Pt. 2, Younger and Untitled also show great melodic maturity and superb control. This is however only half of the picture here. Often, OBTN tear their songs apart and expose their bare entrails. After assembling atmospheric and vibrant openings, OBTN often turn increasingly visceral and incendiary, pilling on layers of feedback and noise to entirely drown their original vaporous melodies and vocals, and when they combine atmospheric and noise, they appear to drift into narcotic-induced dream territories (Rejoice, Trees Pt. 1).

Make Amends For We Are Merely Vessels is a remarkable follow up to the trio’s debut, and one that daringly takes a different path altogether. Our Brother The Native have developed an interesting musical lexicon in the last couple of years and apply it with superbly creative flair. While the mood of Tooth And Claw, which was assembled over the internet before Chaz had even met the other two in the flash, was a light and bucolic affair, this new opus, road-tested live for a year prior to being recorded in Foss’s basement, is a sombre and contrasted document of a band maturing fast.

3.9/5

Our Brother The Native | Fat-Cat Records
Buy: CD | iTunes