To Destroy A City - To Destroy A City (Album Review)
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Written by Patrick Gormley
Formed in the summer of 2010 with ambitions of collectively fusing the inspiration of many styles and genres into integrated, emotive, compositional pieces, Chicago based trio To Destroy A City have begun their musical life with quite elevated intentions. In many ways so, they are quite fortunate that their eponymous debut, released in September, reaches and surpasses these lofty goals.
The industrious trio of Andrew Welch, Jeff Anderson and Michael Marshall it would seem have wasted little time since their inception, writing the bulk of the material for the record within two months. And while other new bands may spend countless hours fretting over small details about their debut release, 'To Destroy A City' with an obvious inherent confidence in their music and their ability have promptly produced an album ripe with simplistic, trance inducing, ethereally layered compositions that drift through the darkness and light that constitute the complexity of this human condition.
Perfect examples of this foray through the darkness and light litter the album but it is with track 'Illium' that it resonates the finest. It begins with the albums only trace of vocal, a haunting narrated sample of T.S Eliots, 'The Hollow Men', filling the milieu with the spiritual journey of Eliot’s fellowmen towards salvation and away from despair before exploding into a joyous chorus of reverb drenched guitars and immense synth. Other notable tracks include 'The Marvels of Modern Civilisation', a short, pulsating tip of the hat to Manchester’s highly influential New Order and the wistful melancholia that is 'Goodbye, Dear Friend'. In truth there is no real blip throughout the forty or so minutes that make up 'To Destroy A City' instead just a very free flowing, superbly crafted debut offering.
For To Destroy A City to reach the point they are at now in such a short space of time is absolutely mind blowing and one can only envision a very bright future for misters Welch, Anderson and Marshall. 'To Destroy A City' is an album for fans of Boards of Canada, The American Dollar or for anyone who appreciates brilliantly structured ambient infused electronic post rock.
'To Destroy A City' is released on 27th September.
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The industrious trio of Andrew Welch, Jeff Anderson and Michael Marshall it would seem have wasted little time since their inception, writing the bulk of the material for the record within two months. And while other new bands may spend countless hours fretting over small details about their debut release, 'To Destroy A City' with an obvious inherent confidence in their music and their ability have promptly produced an album ripe with simplistic, trance inducing, ethereally layered compositions that drift through the darkness and light that constitute the complexity of this human condition.
