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Sciflyer deliver full-length noise proclamation 30 July 2003
Some musical fashions, like noise rock, don’t ever really need to change because their defining aspects are so simple they allow endless variety. Alameda, California lo-fi trio Sciflyer offer their take on this timeless sub-genre on their debut full length, Fair Weather Karma, out last week on northern California indie label Clairecords. Sciflyer are front man Steve Kennedy (before founding the band he was briefly in Estuary with Chris Streng, who went on to found and lead The Stratford 4), bassist Kim Kennedy (she and Steve are married), and drummer Roger Chandler. Taped mostly at home on an analog 8-track machine with help from Matt Piucci (frontman for The Rain Parade) and engineer/multi-instrumentalist Scott Solter (Tarantel, John Vanderslice, The Court & Spark, The Stratford 4), the new album follows two EPs and nearly five years in the studio and on the road spent refining their subtle, deeply layered take on psychedelic noise rock. Sciflyer have covered Ride, Pink Floyd, and Hüsker Dü, and on Fair Weather Karma these influences shine through the band’s swirly, glittery electrical fog. But on the new disc they sound most like Psychocandy-era Jesus And Mary Chain—all reverb and romance. It’s a deliciously pretty and mind-altering sonic flavor that I’ve never tired of, and they do it justice. Short, dreamy, and relatively-quiet intro track Barnstorm sets the stage with layered guitars, hard-panned harmony vocals, and nearly-subliminally-quiet drums. Cut to the fast, driving, almost-instrumental Burn & Sell—simple on the surface but bemusingly complex inside, lush with crafty resonances and tonal convolutions. Now, here’s something I can’t really explain, but I’ll try. I hate prog rock, and I hate most trance, and Sciflyer’s music bears something in common with both and yet, well, Sciflyer don’t suck. As a stoner kid (though that’s not what we called ourselves back then) I revelled in the over-the-top, naive beauty of a twenty minute Yes composition but for god’s sake—you just can’t have a twenty minute long cum shot. But Sciflyer, on their 12 minute song Burning Down The House (no relation to the David Byrne composition) keep up an incremental, two-chord crescendo from the start till the very end and it’s not only not boring, it’s simply stunning. They’ve balanced unrelenting intensity with enough subtlety and self-awareness to make it work. On the six minute Come Up To My Cloud which follows (the name perhaps a lampoon of the early Rolling Stones tune), they do it all again and it still works. Fair Weather Karma is very hypnotic and beautiful. There’s depth within depth of crunchy old analog distortion laced with just the right touch of melody, which in the right hands becomes music I just wanna dive and disappear into. Yeah. Sciflyer are touring the US now, with dates running through the middle of next month. Check their website for details. You can find Fair Weather Karma at better record shops or online at Darla or Tonevendor. | Sciflyer | | Sciflyer on mp3.com | | Clairecords | | Darla | | Tonevendor | | top of page | |
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