Fall Electric - Measure and Step (Album)
The album release of Fall Electric's debut, Measure and Step, plays out more like a grand symphony. For indeed Measure and Step incorporates the impressive talent of this trio, which include Andrew Ryan on guitar and vocals, drummer Pete Guazzelli, and cellist Tristen Parr give these guys a definite edge on their Australian compadres.
I saw Measure and Step as an apt title for their carefully arranged production. Its division into two movements, or moods are marked by two overtures. The first half of the album is intense, even melodramatic in its heavy atmospheric sound. The second is lighter in tone, melody and lyrics achieving a nice overall balance. The combined sounds of the trio will obviously draw comparisons with that other Aussie string band, The Dirty Three and they certainly would be warranted.
The opening instrumentals of Sliding offers up a turbulent cacophony of percussion and strings, both plucked (pizzicato) and bowed, thereby setting the scene for tracks one through six. Accusatory stilted, Faithless Friend, in spite of combined vocal efforts, it is always the strings that win out ultimately. There are those slightly melancholic strummings that combine with atmospheric reverb on the track, Twine of Wool.
On the other hand, there are those slightly angst riddled vocals trying to marry the perfect clarity of the strings on 3am. For it seems that ultimately, it is Parr’s cellist skills that make this album really stand out and be heard. And then the journey furthers still with Segue: another instrumental lead-in to the next chapter of Measure and Step; listeners are now being led to the lighter side. For indeed, the concept of Plastic Rabbits, a stripped back tune, lighter in tone and string section, is – if nothing else – a strange one. And I still don’t quite know the deeper symbolic meaning of a plastic rabbit, but I’m sure there is one…maybe…
It is arguable that the vox on Ryan can be slightly grating in their raw stripped back way, almost coming across as too whiny.However, by the next album, I’m really hoping that he will have adapted to his style with greater ease. Because ultimately, musicianship such as this seems pretty hard to come by and it’s always a pleasure when you experience it in such a unique and varied way, warts and all.
