Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Plume Giant's "Callithump" In Review


Plume Giant’s debut LP, released yesterday and available on iTunes and Bandcamp, is an emblem of both musical coalescence and personal growth.

The mellifluous trio, made up of Eliza Bagg SM ’12 (violin, vocals, harmonium), Nolan Green ES ’12 (guitar, vocals, harmonium) and Oliver Hill BC ’12 (viola, guitar, vocals), continues to excel at everything that made their “Plume Giant EP” unique yet recognizably excellent.  However, the new LP, “Callithump” also experiments successfully with different types of songs while still developing and expressing a signature sound.

By Brenda Wirth


Callithump” also makes impressive use of the multiple available articulations on its instruments — violin, viola, guitar, harmonium, tamborine or the occasional horn. In “B-Side Baby” alone, for example, the violin and viola play strong chordal elements, the main melodic lines, secondary melodic fills and echoes, and plucked accents and articulations. The voices themselves are rhythmic instruments, especially effective when they enter at different times and trade back and forth.

Some songs recall tracks for the first EP. The bleusy viola lines of “Kensico Dam” bring to mind “Black Cat,” and “Wait it Out” falls somewhere between “Fool Hall” and “All of it Now.” But these songs, like the rest of the album, add something unique with a few surprises along the way.

An early performance of "Wait it Out." NB how much slower it is.

“Wait it Out,” a single released in July, uses a steady, rhythmic grove with a coherent bassline to build and then maintain the energy throughout the song. Playful fiddled tunes in between vocals revive a celebrated technique of “Fool Hall,” while the lively buildup to a strong chord that signals the chorus adds an even greater drive that carries the listener eagerly through the song. The song’s light nature questions the future without agonizing over it, the lyrics refreshingly real without becoming overdramatic. This sets a tone for the entire album. The lyrics on “Callithump”, which strike a balance of playful and emotional, often give the listener a sense of what the song is about, without making it obvious.



While in some songs traditional verse-chorus-bridge-outro (with appropriate repetitions) patterns can be discerned, the album’s compositional structure does not constrict itself to a template. Each song’s structure is whatever best suits the story it tells or the musical fabric it weaves.

Plume Giant begins to reach into other styles and makes them its own.  Oliver explained that the first half of the LP is made up of more “deftly composed” songs of different American styles, whereas the second half “opens up and mellows out.”

In “We Got it Made,” a happy-go-lucky number that adds some jazzy elements — with horn and harmonium to boot — inserts some of Plume Giant’s signature vocal harmonies to add a unique touch to an otherwise simpler, carefree song. “Birthday” begins with more of  Dido feel that grows from an Eliza solo to a fuller Plume Giant sound. “Before the Sun” sounds more country before the harmonies and fiddle lines (thankfully) kick in.

The group’s ability to harmonize has been a consistent strength, and “Callithump” makes ample use of sustained chords, suspensions and extended ternary harmonies (mmmm add six chords). For dramatic effect, the instruments cut out to highlight the three voices on certain chords.

Consistent with the trio’s down-to-earth demeanour, “Callithump” doesn’t shy away from throwing in some quirky treats. “Old Joe the Crow,” a lighthearted tale of a crow that incorporates a lot of onomatopoetic “caw caws” and “tweedle deets,” exemplifies this theme. Spinning off their fun-seeking souls, Plume Giant has allowed performances of this track to inform the finished product. After introducing Joe’s wife, Janette, the singers randomly pipe up “Janette!” During a particularly dramatic solo of the group’s soprano belting out a low melody line about Joe (a fantastic example of Plume members stretching themselves in new ways), the backup shouts “Sing it, Eliza!.” Before the final chorus of extended crow sounds, Nolan chimes in a  “Whoooooooo!!!” The song culminates in a coda of cawing.

The unexpected keeps the record fresh. A break in an anticipated moment (just before beat two) of “We’ve Got it Made” or a Charlie Parkeresque instrumental flare that is intangible and everywhere for the bridge of “November,” grabs the listener’s attention as if it were in danger of slipping. (It isn’t.)




Plume Giant used a variety of drummers in addition to Yalies Timothy Huntington Ulysses Gladding aka THUG SY ’14 on euphonium, Matt Griffith TC ’14 on clarinet and Jacob Paul SM ’13 on trumpet to round out the instrumental sections. Longer, more involved instrumental bridges could be an interesting direction for future Plume Giant numbers.

The band used kickstarter to raise ten grand in October for the album and for a few music videos, coming soon, and the members worked with a New York freelance production engineer to coproduce the record. Overall, production came out clean and professional with one or two minor snags.

In “Back Porch,” for instance, a short song towards the end of the LP about carefree, sexual exstasy, the an incoherent outro leaves the listener a bit frustrated and confused. The use of harmonium throughout the number is a strength of the song, but when it enters again at the end after an instrumental section has already tapered off and faded, the listener is jolted by a clunky line that starts louder than the previous fade but also dies off. The song would have benefited from a smoother transition and fade out, or a different compositional choice entirely. By contrast, the distorted rock-style intro to the song was very well done, a not-so-obvious decision for a folk song intro that fit well and was carefully executed.

The production expertise that comes with multiple albums will happen for Plume Giant, an ensemble that, during its time at Yale and after graduation, has come into its own, asserted its own musical flavour and continued to stretch its own limits. The trio’s spirit shines through in “November,” the emotional apex of the album that recalls the intensity and concentration of “Tuesday,” from the EP.

And while Plume Giant would be hardpressd to duplicate Tuesday’s soft yet dramatic, harmonic buildup in its wordless chorus, the slower buildup throughout the entire song of “November,” the delicacy of its vocal textures, and the complexity of the emotions they portray are unparalleled.

It’s as if the song is teetering on the edge of a curved blade and too much or too little at the wrong moment would cause the entire thing to fall apart. “November” starts with Eliza’s voice and light instrumental backing, just to emphasize certain certain vocal motions and to keep the song from stagnating. Then, just as timidly, Eliza is joined by the others and the experience begins to slowly build. By “how your breath hung in the air,” most of the listener’s breaths will be hanging as well.

Halfway through the track, as the verse repeats again, it starts to pick up more with “I remember, I remember” compelling the group to accept the memory and tell the story, even if in metaphors. The song ends with the ominous line, “How sad to lose something in the snow,” followed by a chilling augmented chord and a winding down that just barely releases the moment.


Music and lyrics compliment each other harmoniously as they share and shift the spotlight onto each other, just as Eliza, Nolan and Oliver revel in a shared musical energy that passes among them while never truly leaving any individual.

E tribus unum.

Z

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