red roses
for me
UNREST
(from Red Roses 6)
The deepest blue retained my words; fragility in extremes. I would have stopped
anyone from hurting these people, only to be reminded this was the fuel for the
fragility I adored. Flowerfairies to Throwing Muses they stole Kristin Hersh's
fire as their support band on the summer tour. People who show one over a period
cannot be trusted & I cannot trust Kristin Hersh. I read something where Unrest
were described as having too many ideas in the space of their songs. Upon hearing
them live this becomes a puzzling theory because they were actually kind of repetitive
in a Spiritualized way and all choirsofangels a la Cocteaus. Surrounded by this
it comes as a shock when they do their noise bit, but it's all so gloriously fluent
we forgive them without question.
In this country they've only released the gorgeous "imperial frrr" on 4AD-related
label Guernica, which as far as I can make out is way beyond the lo-fi quality
of their previous releases on their own Teenbeat label. These are still worth
searching out for their fickle devotion to rocking out one minute and then behaving
like frail sugar mice which would break if you even looked at them the next. Ah,
Unrest your beauty soars high.
An eleven second volume reference tone kicking into a burst of guitars & an almost
nonchalant "uh huh" introducing you to the pop thrust of "Suki" followed up with
the fragile spiders web melodies hanging around "Imperial" with a cold beauty.
You're infatuated and there's still at least another eight songs to lust over.
This trio have realised the best songs don't have to be brimming over with superfluous
beats and solos when the strength of a single melody is twice as effective. So
"I Do Believe You're Blushing" casts it's spell around you with a nagging bass-line,
while "Sugarshack" flails wildly with a bastard rockabilly swagger.
Songs that remind you of the swans on nearby canoe lake, one minute pushing and
pulling as they frantically try & reintroduce themselves to the air while gravity
has other ideas and the next full of effortless grace & elegance as they glide
gently across the water. With Bridget Cross' silky vocals only gracing "June"
it's clear this should be the start of a long & wondrous relationship as long
as 4AD realise this is the way forward.
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