Sure, the best-of list is already out, but I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to admit missing a few pretty good recordings this year. New Orleans’ Belong was one of them, and I stumbled upon said artist by way of a time machine. I was rummaging through a stack of old magazines when I found a copy of Arthur from the summer of 2006 – the one with Brightblack Morning Light on the cover and their interview where they talked about how rad they think nature is. I had read “Heavy Air” before, a much better title for an article on Belong than the stupid Internet meme I referenced. However, something really struck a chord with me reading it this time around. But more on that in a minute…
Belong’s latest is called Colorloss Record. It dropped a while ago, actually. But I’m slow at the punch sometimes. Colorloss Record is a collection of covers, though you probably wouldn’t discern that from just listening. It doesn’t sound like any of the originals. Therein lies the power of Belong, covers or originals – Belong appropriates elements of shoegaze, ambient, minimalism, and drone without falling into or sounding like any of the aforementioned genres. They sound like a pop band through a thick filter, like listening to a neighbor’s stereo. Really unusual, and pretty exciting. The volatile surges and swells of balmy, warm analog noise peppered throughout invoke the eroded and washed haze of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops by way of Kevin Shields. Despite hailing from a warm and humid climate, I must say that Belong sounds quite majestic as the soundtrack to the silent and cold winter night we’re enjoying here in Louisville tonight.
Belong is Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones, and both gentlemen probably have a lot of love for Tim Hecker, Lichens, and the Goslings. But on Colorloss Record, they show a love for the likes of Syd Barrett, July, and Tintern Abbey, laying to tape some obscure covers in a completely unrecognizable, sonically aquatic fashion. Dig “Late Nite” and “My Clown,” por favor. Yes, the music really is supposed to sound something like the transmission of an extraterrestrial and/or underwater shortwave station broadcasting distant psychedelic pop music, and it’s unabashedly balls to the wall. Totally otherworldly. Continue reading ‘All Your Base are Belong to Belong’
