PIAS (Europe)/Ipecac (North America)
A full quarter of a century after Twin Peaks, Angelo Badalamenti‘s languid yet sinister lounge-jazz template has permeated music to the extent that it’s almost a genre in itself, as the preponderance of writers lazy enough to fall back on them as a descriptor, such as my good(ish) self, will attest. Think Chrysta Bell, think Guano Padano‘s “Lynch”, think a million and one neo-noir movies with brushed cymbals. But sometimes it’s hard not to.
Bohren & Der Club of Gore‘s latest, Piano Nights, simply revels in exactly the kind of atmosphere that used to envelop that ill-starred town week after week, all smoke and mystery. Although there’s something somehow more urban, more urbane about Bohren, like this is what they’d play in One-Eyed Jacks if it was in the heart of a city, or the kind of thing Agent Cooper might listen to if he had an iPod and was catching the train. It’s music for late-night assignations with the darkness, for the bottle of whiskey that comes accompanied by a pearl-handled revolver, for long journeys anticipating a violent end. Indeed, it’s as much Murakami as Lynch, soundtracking the enigma of a big city, of the psychogeographies of back streets and underground clubs where powerful men plot nefarious deeds and hearts are broken as readily as a wine glass falling from an outstretched hand (presumably onto an expensive carpet). It’s the music that plays past the time you should have gone home, for those timeless hours between late night and early morning, for tracking shots down endless hotel corridors.
It may seem Bohren have mellowed, settled gently, over many years, back into a comfortably uncomfortable sound, like Earth before them; and to an extent that’s true. But, like Earth, doom is never far away. There’s something vast and apocalyptic about this club; the buzz has turned sour, and behind the opulence awaits the void. And yeah, I’ve mentioned Earth three times now, and STILL Bohren don’t actually sound anything like them. It’s not about sound, or melody, but tempo and atmosphere, and with Bohren atmosphere is all.
Play this one late and lonely. Especially if you have a decent view out over a city or have a long train journey coming up. Exquisite. Sink into it like a thick liquid.
-Justin Farrington-