An Emerald City – The Forth

An Emerald City – The Forth (2011)

Produced by An Emerald City

Dan Katz - Drums, percussion

Felix Lun - Violin

Jessica Roth - Bass

Sam Handley - Synths, guitars, percussion, vocoder

Reuben Bonner - Guitars, synths, vocals, percussion, bass, vocoder

Rob Croft - Percussion, bass, sitar, drum machine

Ben Mortensen - Flute (on The Eighth)

Track listing:

01. b31 (9:41)

02. Seizuretron (6:08)

03. Circa Scaria (5:45)

04. The Fourth (9:39)

05. Key To The Kingdom (5:14)

06. Ulica Bolslaw (4:00)

07. The Eighth (5:58)

08. Casual Encounters (9:28)

An Emerald City is a New Zealand band currently residing in Berlin.   The Forth is the bands third release after 2008’s “An Emerald City” ep and 2009’s “Circa Scaria” album.  Their previous releases have been based on acoustic and stripped back instrumentation being layered and built upon.  In some ways similar to Mogwai where songs build and build except with without the overdrive.  On this release the band have moved to a more electric sound, which adds an interesting new element to their sound.

The albums first song “b31” begins with a field recording of some very unusual keyboard playing.  The song proper merges in and takes over the track with a Trip Hop drum pattern and pulsating Keyboards.  This song has a nice groove and introduces synthesized keyboards.  Eastern influenced Strings are layered in for an interesting mix of textures.  This is a really strong track and a great start to the album.  

Following on is “Seizuretron”.  The song is anchored by a woodblock drum loop and live drums.  The groove is intricate but simple enough to get you foot going.  The song builds and get’s heavier with Violin and Sitar added to bring it to a crescendo.

 “Circa Scaria” probably unsurprisingly sounds most like the previous album of the same name.  This song is more stripped back and has a strong eastern feel to it.  It’s a nice track and has a nice Sitar line.   The violins remind me of Faith No More’s Woodpecker Form Mars.

The forth track is…well “The Forth”.  This song is more electronic than the previous two songs.  The bass and the keyboards get into a solid groove which gives Dan Katz’s drummer room to play with beats.  The guitars and vocal samples are chopped and break in and out of the track.  The song adds some Drum and Bass style Keyboard and Vocal lines near the end to give it a different feel.  Although it’s a 9 minute long track it doesn’t lose your interest. 

“Key To The Kingdom” slows things right down with a slow almost jazzy groove.  It has some cool and almost out of place instrumentation along the way from Horror Rock Keyboards to Blast Beats. 

“Ulica Bolslaw” follows on and is a Trans Am/Primal Scream style track.  The keyboards reminded me of Primal Screams cover of “Some Velvet Morning”.  It’s an upbeat track with a driving Drum Beat and the best keyboard signature on the album in the second half of the song.  A really good tune.

The seventh track is umm….”The Eighth”.  This song is driven by a percussive drum signature and shakers.  It is similar in style to “Seizuretron” and “Circa Scaria” but with the eastern flavour toned down.  The piano has an interesting tone almost like it was recorded from a distance.  It’s an unusual sound and makes for a sightly unusual melody.  The song builds and become quite spacey near the end.  One of the weaker tracks on the album but still interesting. 

The final song is ”Casual Encounters”.  I didn’t get this song at all and got quite bored in the latter half of it.  It doesn’t really go anywhere but has some a few bits and pieces of interest along the way.  The song falls into shambles near the end and is a disappointing end to the record.

I like a lot of this album but there are point where is drags on.  The first 6 songs are really strong and the sound this band makes is dynamic and interesting but a few average songs let this album down.  That being said surely they are one of the best and original New Zealand band active at the moment.

7/10