Whispering in the midst of a lot of noise, and yet being audible, is a difficult art at the best of times. How do you manage to clearly enunciate your words to the listener while a great cacophony is going on around you? That is, if you can attract attention sufficiently enough for your whispers to actually have listeners. I mean, you might be trying to say something important. Why don’t people just stop that bloody racket and devote their ears to you and your delicate murmurs?
Appropriately, Minneapolis based A Whisper in the Noise face almost this exact dilemma. This might just be the most appropriate name for an art rock band on the face of the planet at the moment. Why? Well, to put it bluntly, we live in an era where the internet has made the provision of music incredibly easy. That is not a bad thing. I am a firm believer that music is, creatively if not in many other ways, healthier today than it has ever been. However, there is so much music today that it is probably more difficult to stand out from the crowd than it was a decade ago. Relaying your message to listeners is becoming all too dependent on internet presence and, if you are a band like A Whisper in the Noise, then the delicacy and poise present in your music makes it difficult to be heard over the vast amount of bands that are prepared to shove their riffs down your throats. A band as quiet and reflective as this one have to be truly amazing to really stand out.
“To Forget” is pretty amazing. This is not an album for people who want immediacy, it is not an album for people who want something to blow their eardrums; this is an album about the beauty of sonic art. In fact, though it may be quiet and it may be delicate, it may also be one of the greatest records released since the turn of the century. This band have always been whispering, but they have also always been frustrating. Their records have been so close to being masterpieces but have always fallen away and allowed the attention to wander. “To Forget” doesn’t fall away in that sense at all.
A captivating, intriguing listen that absolutely screams (ironically) ‘classic record’ from the first listen, “To Forget” is not so much a rock album as it is an experiment in blending songwriting with ambient and modern classical composition. The textures present here are absolutely astonishing. The depth and resonance of almost every note takes the listener on a journey to a beautiful terrain wholly beyond the world in which we live. This album is the proof that sometimes a whisper is far more effective than a shout.
“To Forget” is out on Monday via Exile on Mainstream Records.
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Appropriately, Minneapolis based A Whisper in the Noise face almost this exact dilemma. This might just be the most appropriate name for an art rock band on the face of the planet at the moment. Why? Well, to put it bluntly, we live in an era where the internet has made the provision of music incredibly easy. That is not a bad thing. I am a firm believer that music is, creatively if not in many other ways, healthier today than it has ever been. However, there is so much music today that it is probably more difficult to stand out from the crowd than it was a decade ago. Relaying your message to listeners is becoming all too dependent on internet presence and, if you are a band like A Whisper in the Noise, then the delicacy and poise present in your music makes it difficult to be heard over the vast amount of bands that are prepared to shove their riffs down your throats. A band as quiet and reflective as this one have to be truly amazing to really stand out.
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