Lower Dens' debut, Twin-Hand Movement, feels like love. I say this not just because I think it's a great album, but because of how it operates. It seduces, and not to earn flavor-of-the-month rights, but in a way that suggests it'll stick around. It's patient music, not without excitement, but certainly confident in the way of something that implicitly knows its worth; it's got a "take me or leave me" attitude, because it's sure you'll chose the former.
Lower Dens frontwoman, Jana Hunter, previously performed as a solo artist, in a psychy freak-folk vein. What carries over is her dusky voice; a gorgeous world-weary alto, a bit like that of fellow Baltimorian Victoria Legrand of Beach House. But that's where the comparison ends, as this is a guitar record through and through. Twin-Hand Movement is full of just that, and so perfectly orchestrated you wonder why other musicians feel the need to "expand" beyond these twelve strings. What's also amazing here is the lack of effects: generally, these twin guitars are outfitted with light distortion and reverb alone, and when songs expand into looping electronics, it feels like just the right amount to pay off on the expansive, wide-screen vision of the band. Another corollary here is Television, who pretty much created a template for sophisticated twin-guitar rock, taking familiar song structures and fracturing them into fugue-like reconfigurations.
It's hard to think of an album in recent memory that feels this broad and intimate at the same time. Many of the songs start simply enough: an ostinato and Hunter's voice graphing out the framework for the song's verse. It's comfortable enough, straightforward "rock" music; not particularly noteworthy or remarkable. But this is where the band seduces-- it's what happens in these songs second halves that turn everything on it's end. Case in point: track 2, stunner "Tea Lights". It begins with an understated strum and Hunter's voice, paired with calm, methodical drumming. This sets up a counterpoint with the chanted duet of the chorus and a second guitar that outlines the basic chords with a lead line. Once you're pretty well settled, say about minute three, is where the magic happens: the lead line is coupled with another guitar figure that's similar, but adds two slight, ringing dissonances. The effect is gorgeous, and unsettling, lending an eerie edge to the proceedings-- suddenly what was familiar, even soothing has become refracted, distorted and then, just as suddenly, it's over. Twin-Hand Movement is full of such sleights, and it's breathtaking how many times the band can ensnare you with its patient brand of spell.
Lower Dens aren't likely to get a ton of notice in the current blogohype of genre-tag-of-the-nanosecond; in fact, you'd be hard pressed to call this anything but what it is-- rock music. But like love, it's much larger than the sum of it's parts-- it's eternal, elemental, magical.
[Lower Dens Myspace]
[Buy Twin-Hand Movement from Gnomonsong]
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