Towers - II
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When I first played the new album by Towers, I said “Yes!”, then I said, “Hmmm, strange,” then I could do nothing but keep listening. “Yes!” and “hmmm” kept alternating in my mind. At this point I’m still not sure which side won, but I can say that Towers is one of the most intriguing bands I’ve heard in a long while.
A bass and drum duo of Rick Duncan and Darryl Swan, Portland’s Towers starts out their new album, II, with a galloping beat that could be the chase scene in an apocalyptic movie. We have no idea what’s coming, but it sounds like it’s gonna be cool. What kicks in — the hmmm moments — is a chaotic industrial avalanche of chunks that seamlessly merges back into that chase scene, this time with lyrics over it that sound simultaneously anarchic and psychedelic. This album is more than 36 minutes, which seems to stretch out even longer than that because of the sheer deviant wasteland feel of it all.
Having listened to this a few times now, my hmmm moments are still there but continually give way to “Wow”. Blanketing synth riffs over desolate Mad Max soundscapes sounds odd, but it works. The lyrics are growled and spoken rather than sung, which makes Swan the overlord of his land, issuing his strange proclamations that must be heeded.
Still, there’s humor here, which I appreciate. The opening track, “Hell,” is exactly 11:34 minutes long. As a science and math nerd who has spent plenty of hours playing with a 3-D graphing calculator, it didn’t take me long to appreciate the significance of this length (enter that number in your calculator and look at it upside down).
II is out now via Eolian Empire.
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(via Cvlt Nation)
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