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October 17, 2005
Slick Purple Pipes
Kelley Polar Quartet - Here in the Night
Kelley Polar starts this song off with a pretty smooth quasi-syllogism, which he coos sweetly to the object of desire, "here in the night are all the wonders of the world/here in the night, there's you". Nice, romantic logic. There is something about this song that makes me want to say that it has emergent properties- i.e. even if all its constituent parts were listed and catalogued in the most excruciating detail, you could never cognitively guess what the song would sound like beforehand- but maybe that's just because it's so very good, and somewhat difficult (for me) to describe. In any case, temptation seems to be the tone that Kelley Polar's going for on 'Here in the Night', and in the final 30 seconds or so, after the caterpillar bass drive cuts out, it's unclear whether or not his ghostly moans are ecstatic or tortured. Polar and Geist have both outdone themselves with the production on this track though, everything is immaculate and so well-placed.
KP himself recently made a few remarks (on ILM) about the album, saying that he had started working on it around last November, and that Morgan Geist's (who helped with the production) high quality control had resulted in "the bleached bones of many an attempt littering the morose grey bit-dunes of my audio drive" [a sentence that strikes me as being almost Aleksander Hemon-esque]. Also, regarding the increased presence of his vocals on the LP, Polar said, "singing is way more possible for me at soft volumes, I can kind of twist my body into some kind of shape where the notes will come out". On 'Here in the Night', his vocals perfectly match the pace and atmosphere of the music- his tone is sly without seeming at all malicious, and he sounds confident in a way that's not overbearing or smug.
This song is from the Kelley Polar Quartet's debut album, "Love Songs of the Haging Gardens", which is released on Environ Records on November 15th. If this song and KPQ's preceding EPs and singles are any indication, the album is sure to be just ridiculously gorgeous and very much worthy of your attention (and, you know, disposable income). Also, according to Environ, a 12" sampler is coming out some time before the LP. [buy both here, soon]
P.S. For fans of Spencer Krug, Global Symphonic just recently announced that a new Sunset Rubdown release is on the way soon. A 5-song EP, possibly recorded with the full band configuration. Anyway, they're making plans to tour this spring, which is good news indeed.
Posted by Kevin at October 17, 2005 12:37 AM