Shalabi Effect
Shalabi Effect
[Alien 8]
Rating: 7.1
Just after Godspeed You Black Emperor! licensed f#a#oo to Kranky,
the word was that their next release would be a split-CD with a band called
the Shalabi Effect, to be titled Aural Florida. The split record
never came to be, and Godspeed eventually released last year's Slow Riot
for New Zero Kanada EP before settling down to work on the highly
anticipated Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven. As for
the Shalabi Effect, it seems that when they were recording, they couldn't
find the tape deck's "stop" button, and wound up amassing much more than
a half album's worth of material. Enough material, in fact, to completely
pack this two-disc album. Bold for a debut, no? The fact that Godspeed You
Black Emperor's forthcoming opus also comes on two pieces of aluminum doesn't
say much for the Canadians' sense of restraint. Have we learned nothing from
the saga of Smashing Pumpkins?
Fortunately, despite similar pretensions, this ain't no MACHINA/The
Machines of God. In fact, this isn't even remotely close to being rock
music, which helps a lot. The idea of extending subtle, meditative, drifting
soundscapes into minutes in the triple-digits is somehow more forgivable.
While this band does share a certain stylistic similarity with Godspeed
(stuff like extended pieces, varied instrumentation, and Hebrew lettering on
the album cover), the Shalabi Effect generally don't provide the pop payoff
of Godspeed when their orchestral tension reaches a grand, thundering
release. Instead, this music is more about the process than the resolution.
Let's try to break this monster down into its component parts.
The most immediately noticeable thing about this music is the strong
Mid-Eastern feel. Part of it is the wide use of tablas and various hand
drums on many of the tracks (there is no standard drum kit), and part of
it stems from song structures and scales that seem duly influenced by the
Indian concept of the raga. By combining hand drums with plucked guitars
and banjos that repeat the same patterns with minor variations (some of
these phrases consist of only a single note), a hypnotic, trance-like
effect is created.
The number of stringed instruments employed here is astounding. "Mending
Holes in a Wooden Heart" even recruits Godspeed violinist Sophie Trudeau
to create one of the album's best tracks, an evocative blend of ringing
electric guitar, tablas, banjos playing Middle Eastern scales, and screechy
violin that owes a lot to 20th century classical music. And on the next
track, "Aural Florida (Approach)," we're offered nine minutes of twisted,
mind-blowing guitar feedback, carved out of the silence by leader Sam
Shalabi with the precision of an ice sculptor.
The second disc offers even more variety. "Mokoondi" combines several
flavors of hand percussion with a hypnotic guitar melody lighting up the
Arabian Night. "Amber Pets" culls its ambient mood from slow, dreamy
guitars processed to the hilt. "Boardwalk of Apollo Beach" is the most
tech-heavy piece, jettisoning the drums and acoustic guitars in favor of
rumbling, eerie electronics. "Apparitions" uses electric guitar drones
in the manner of late-period Spacemen 3, with wavering chords and drifting
delays. "On the Bowery" is the only track with vocals (sung by Strawberry's
Deidre Smith), and it is outstanding: ancient Persian trip-hop played on
period instruments that builds in intensity like the closing montage of
Apocalypse Now.
For consumers, this is what it comes down to: if you're into the drone
and you're into space, and you don't need melodies, chords, or the other
trappings of pop music, you're going to like the Shalabi Effect. If the
idea of an acoustic guitar playing the same two-note pattern for five or
six minutes while subtly modulating synths swirl around is about as
appealing as listening to a car alarm, it's not for you. You have been
warned.
-Mark Richard-San