Geologist and DS – ‘A Shaw Deal’ album review: Isolating experimentation for an audience of two
THE SKINNY: The scourge of the four star review has been a vivid contributor to the downfall of music criticism. As other publications encourage writers to find their own records for critique, naturally, what happens is a build-up of banal comments on an album the reviewer was always fairly certain they would be into anyway but not fortified enough to allow themselves to be bowled over. Far Out doesn’t do that. It means I am subjected, for better or worse, to the latest in alternative revelry and this week, it’s Geologist & DS’s A Shaw Deal, and it’s an experience—in the most avant-garde sense.
It’s clearly an experience for the band, too. A Shaw Deal is the first album from the collaboration of two long-term friends. One is Doug Shaw, bringing to the table his interest in more niche global sounds like African guitars and almost spiritual, ritual music. The other is Geologist, or Brian Weitz, one of the members of Animal Collective.
Already, Animal Collective have always been labled as an experimental group. No one singular genre could ever hold them as they mix pop, electronica, rock, classic indie and left-field folk, amongst other things, into their music. When an act is that unique and singular, it becomes clear that they’re following nothing beyond their own whims. Now given even more freedom and space to play around in this new duo, Geologist & DS take it even further, moving beyond experimental being a little label to describe something slightly different into being Experimental with a capital E and a clear daring willingness to make something people won’t like.
I don’t like it. It’s not that I don’t get it, or understand it, or see what it’s trying to do. I can more than appreciate the value and worth of albums like this and music that defies conversion. But it’s lacking something. As a fully instrumental album, it doesn’t give me the thing I typically tend to grip onto in music, which is the lyrics. But it also doesn’t have the kind of emotional undercurrent that allows fully wordless music to connect. Instead, it feels like a series of musical onslaughts made by two musicians playing around with sounds, production capabilities and unique concoctions of instruments.
It sounds exactly like two friends trying things out with no real care or consideration of an audience beyond themselves. It is, in short, self-indulgent. In moments, it’s so cool and deeply cinematic, like on the album’s promising opening ‘Route 9 Falls’. But in other moments, it’s somewhat painful like on the sickening ending of ‘Ripper Called’ which just sounds like an elastic band being stretched and dragged across plastic.
But to someone else, that would be cool too. To other ears, this kind of music, which seems to care less about storytelling or connection or being accessible to care more about sonic possibilities and intrigue, would serve them well. For people who are deeply into truly experimental music that’s plucked straight from the lab as the studio becomes a place for tests and trials, Geologist & DS’s A Shaw Deal will be a hooking and interesting listen. It is subjective. Especially in the world of music like this that dares to push boundaries and be grating all for the purpose of art and the sake of trying something new, this duo are releasing a gift. To me, it was a graft – but that’s what makes music so great, isn’t it?
For fans of: Overhauling the dinner party ‘background’ playlist with something that certainly sharpens the pinot noir.
A concluding comment from Johnny Cash: How many notes does it take to reach meaninglessness?
A Shaw Deal track by track
Release date: January 31st | Producer: Brian Weitz and Doug Shaw | Label: Drag City
‘Route 9 Falls’: A promising start to the album. With frantic guitar sounds being morphed into a kind of electronic current, the track sounds like a film score for a piece of visually gorgeous left-field cinema. [3/5]
‘Wit of the Watermen’: While still cinematic, this track is definitely less so. The duo push you right into the centre of the experimentation as this song feels like the type of sounds and noises that might spin around you at some modern art installation that your dad wouldn’t understand, and you’d be lying when you pretend like you do. [2.5/5]
‘Ripper Called’: The closest the duo come to creating a clearer sense of atmosphere is here, where that atmosphere is deeply unsettling. Starting like a horror film score, it finishes with this repeated noise that feels like nails on a chalkboard. Fascinating and visceral, but not enjoyable in any typical sense. [2.5/5]
‘Loose Gravel’: I’d say it’s about here that I start to get bored. While aware that there are things to be interested in and intrigued by, five minutes of the same throbbing noise with some discordant sounds over the top isn’t really my idea of a good time. [1.5/5]
‘Petticoat’: Someone’s got a toy piano and let their kid or a frantic dog hammer all the keys for a minute before the duo, then try to turn that into art if you can last that long. [1/5]
‘Knuckles to Nostrils’: More energetic and a bit more cinematic again, but still devoid of feeling. It feels exactly like two friends hyping each other up to make something super out there and weird, but it actually would have just been fine to keep on a logic file in their own shared Google Drive. [1/5]
‘Avarice Edit’: Short and sharp at only two minutes long, this return to sounding like a film score is a welcome closer to a welcome end of the album. [2.5/5]
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