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album // Fields
Junip's Fields
presented a dilemma - to review or not? This whole site has tended
to focus on Mute Records' UK releases, and I've
never quite gotten around to looking at the Mute Corporation's
US-only records. Fields was released in Europe on City
Slang, yet released on Mute in the States. I'd heard 'Always', a
quite beautiful track released as a single, but it didn't make me
want to buy and review the album necessarily. When a Twitter friend
and fellow Mute fan said that he'd been listening to Junip and suggested
it had a Krautrock sound, that was the clincher. I'd downloaded
a few Junip tracks, including some unreleased stuff from rcrdlbl.com
and the free Rope & Summit EP but they were just gathering
dust on my hard-drive. When Chris said that about the Krautrock
vibe, I decided it was high time I acquiesced; when I found Fields
on sale in Fopp for a criminal £3.00 the decision to review
was reasonably academic, especially once I'd heard it, as it's excellent.
First, the proposition: Junip is a trio formed of
three Swedish musicians, guitarist and vocalist José
González (okay, Argentinian / Swedish), drummer
Elias Araya and keyboard player Tobias
Winterkorn. González is naturally familiar for his
genteel solo work and classical guitar playing, with a body of work
that includes covers of The Knife's arresting 'Heartbeats'
and doom stalwart Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Prior
to Fields they'd released an EP (Black Refuge)
in 2004, the year before González's solo début.
The Junip sound is difficult to place. There is,
at certain points, a very evident motorik ethic. 'Rope & Summit'
is one example; 'Howl', another, is so Can that
the surviving members of the band could feasibly sue Junip for the
rhythm's similarity to their 'Oh Yeah'; 'Off Point' rides on a beat
that Neu! may well have cast to one side whilst writing 'Heroes'
but straps on a skiffly, country twang.
What's possibly more evident is a more broad 'psychedelic'
or 'prog' folk sound, albeit without the huge keyboard soloing (check
out the very end of closing track 'Tide' for the closest it comes).
There's something about the way that the album was recorded which
sounds like a distant echo from forty years ago; a slightly muddy
sound and vaguely trippy vibe pervades, enhanced by González's
echoing, ruminatively innocent vocal. 'Without You' is a case in
point - a beautiful song which sounds like a type of psychedelic
folk, augmented by a mysterious synth that drifts in in the second
half; references to nature reinforce the folk angle, as does the
weathered-looking sleeve design with its geometric hippy motifs.
'It's Alright' can't decide if it's going down the
trippy folk or trippy blues route, but while we wait for it to decide,
it potters along with intent on a lovely bass line, while minimal
percussion slowly and cautiously nudges into view. It's dainty,
especially when the hi-hats and tinkly keyboards usher in a muted
beat. 'It's alright' murmurs González, which rather
sells this song short; for me, along with 'Howl' and 'To The Grain'
it is one of the album's highlights. 'Sweet & Bitter' has a
deep, clipped funk edge with fat bass sounds and an ethereal web
of synth sounds, which you almost wish would dominate the track
completely, prog-stylee. Toward the end it feels like we're approaching
some such freak out, but it's far too ordered and controlled for
that.
'Don't Let It Pass' is a beautiful, serene ballad,
González' voice floating delicately above a sweet folksy
accompaniment. The synth solo here is laced with a heart-stopping
emotion, while the harmonised title is freighted with a maudlin,
weary tone. 'To The Grain' and 'Tide' mine the same sound, but both
are much more dramatic in many ways; examples of songs where you
can't work out whether it's positive and affirming or filled with
poignancy and regret.
I'll let you decide.
Fields was recorded and produced by Don
Alstherberg and Junip; Alstherberg also supplies bass on 'Always',
'Without You' and 'Tide'.
lp/cd:
1. In Every Direction
2. Always
3. Rope & Summit
4. Without You
5. It's Alright
6. Howl
7. Sweet & Bitter
8. Don't Let It Pass
9. Off Point
10. To The Grain
11. Tide
3cd [Amazon exclusive]:
CD1 - as above
CD2 - Rope & Summit EP + 'Chickens' and 'Azaleadalen'
both available from rcrdlbl.com here
CD3 - Black Refuge EP (1. Black Refuge, 2. Turn To The
Assassin, 3. Official, 4. Chugga-Chugga, 5. The Ghost Of Tom Joad)
single // Rope & Summit
Review forthcoming.
download:
1. Rope & Summit
2. Far Away
3. At The Doors
4. Loops
single // Always
Review forthcoming.
download:
1. Always
single // In Every Direction
Review forthcoming.
download:
1. In Every Direction
2. Pling
3. White Rain
4. Näckrosdammen
5. In Every Direction (White Sea Remix)
6. In Every Direction (Dale Earnhardt Jr. Remix)
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