Department of Eagles Archive 2003-2006 (Bella Union)
4/5
By: Chris Jones
Don’t let the less-than-imaginative title fool you, this is most definitely an imaginative piece of work from Department of Eagles, so satisfyingly diverse that it’s hard to imagine getting to that point you can get to with an album; that frustrating state of overplayed abandon.
The band are Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus, two old college room-mates that begun playing around with sampling software together at NYU. The name Department of Eagles is a reference to Belgian poet, journalist, filmmaker and artist Marcel Broodthaers. He was a master of found art, assemblage and collage, which is exactly what this band is all about, composing an artful listening experience by drawing on a range of musical sources.
The album is a mix of styles, from cute guitar riffs to manic drums and back around to grandiose string arrangements. ‘Brightest Minds’ feels uneasy with high tempo guitars and drums while the string arrangement haunts their pace and thrust with long, low, deep cello strokes. The chorus issues a warning “just remember when I cut you down, it happens to the better of the brightest minds” suggesting friction that echoes the frantic, edgy side of the track as well as the foreboding aspect.
Department of Eagles have the ability to change the music up altogether, with ease, demonstrated nicely in the last minute or so of ‘Golden Apple’ where the slow choir-esque singing and looping piano that follow it, suddenly take on a more solemn taste, as the piano key drops and the minor notes really ring out.
Dappled across the album are the ‘Practice Room Sketches’, five short experimental pieces – raw tracks/recordings that are an insight into what forms the backbone of their music; layering sound. A great example of their layering is the track ‘While We’re Young’; the home made vocals and sounds, the impressive strings arrangement, the fast drums, ascending guitar riff and vocals. All these elements produce a remarkably unique sound – one of the stand-out tracks of the album.
Archive 2003-2006 is an interesting chronicle of a few years making music that boasts a curiosity and experimentalism that never once sounds forced, and genuinely makes me smile.
Artists in this article: Department Of Eagles
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