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April 11, 2006
mistook urgency for necessity more than once
This is a rerun, but what can I say, I love this song. Not so fond of what I wrote about it last April, but the song has really stuck with me- it's that toy piano that makes 'Industry and Snow' such a jewel, but I can quite articulate why that's the case. **Thanks to everyone who pointed out the broken link- should be fixed now**
A while ago, there was a piece in the Believer about the strange but compelling aesthetic appeal of abandoned, crumbling factories (n.b. it was in Believer 11, and the piece was called "The Acropolis of Northern New Jersey", by Angela Starita), and the industrial archeologists who do not just appreciate but cherish these structures. Ray Raposa, the talent behind the Castanets, seems like he could be one of those people for whom an old, semi-windowless tire factory would be a thing of beauty.
The song starts off quietly, just Raposa and his guitar: "all buried in the industry and snow I saw you, they're breathing down the backs of all those hills". He sings very matter-of-factly, as if he were stating a case to the crickets outside his porch. Then there's a small and awesome interlude with a toy piano, which gives the song a weird, delicate, missing-tooth feel. The ending of 'Industry and Snow' is bracing- like a bucket of cold water dumped over your head unexpectedly (slide guitars, squealing static, revelrous drums).
Interestingly enough, Raposa, like Sufjan Stevens, is also a fiction writer, and is said to be working on a novel that will explore many of the themes that "Cathedral" (the debut LP that 'Industry and Snow' is taken from) addresses. [BUY]
Posted by Kevin at April 11, 2006 07:43 PM