Ambient post-rock for washing machines
Ah, the delights of the Anglo-Russian language barrier. We may never know the intended meaning behind Bosch’s With You’s bizarre moniker (be it an obsession with washing machines or an attempt at sounding mysterious), nor may we ever guess quite what they were going for with this album’s doubly confusing and curiously punctuated title. Perhaps it’s best not to lose sleep over it, as they’re not a very wordy bunch as it is.
Moscow’s Bosch’s With You make atmospheric, meandering soundscapes that exist somewhere between Stars of the Lid-esque ambience and the sleepier side of post-rock. The first part of a trilogy, “…never thought it may seem…” consists primarily of two long compositions split into six tracks. After a four-minute guitar-based intro, the album’s centrepiece, “Dreams that come a Thing”, comes into the fore. At its quietest, the composition floats gently in a cloud of ambience, while at their most active the band comes across like a more subdued Red Sparowes. “Hoarfrost”, by contrast, is an exercise in ambient drone. The piece starts with another acoustic introduction similar to the first track, which gradually gets interrupted by a gentle drone, swelling to boiling point while guitars pick out meditative eastern-tinged melodies over the top, until the whole shebang peters out in a swirling cloud of effects.
Like the dream-state it seems to set out to emulate, “…never thought it may seem…” lurks quietly in your subconscious, never making itself too pronounced. It instead uses subtler tricks to pull you in – to name a few; the odd chime of bells and pianos, softly plucked acoustic guitars, ambient lulls, and repetitive chord sequences which weave their way into your ears and unravel into understated emotional highs. However, amidst all this subtlety, the record does sometimes fail to be involving enough to retain the listener’s interest. It is perhaps, in ambient music, the kiss of death to call a record “good background music”, but unfortunately this album regresses, from time to time, into just that. The compositions simply lack enough of a sense of direction to really merit repeat listening – while there is a reasonable amount of detail on display, it never manifests itself in anything more than a pleasant soundscape. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that Bosch’s With You have made an enjoyable record that reaches a little outside of the post-rock box for its influences, and, for that, perhaps we should commend them.
| Reviewer: Ned Chambers Added: March 20th 2008 |
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