Collections of Colonies of Bees - "Flocks IV" (Radium 2008)
Collections of Colonies of Bees – Birds / Radium
Establishing an identity in the faceless world of post-rock has always been the genre’s Achilles’ heel. Now on the downside of its popularity arc, any ambitious instrumental band purveying the experimental rock sub-style typically gets grouped in behind one of the genre’s poster children (Slint, Tortoise, Talk Talk, Gastr del Sol, Godspeed!, Labradford, etc) and is more or less left for irrelevant. Much like being pegged with the indie rock tag these days, one assumes the basic scope of the sound, writes it off as derivative, and moves on to a new, more exciting buzzword. But in doing so, you can overlook intriguing evolutions, which with a stylistic description as vague as post-rock is very easy to do. There are musicians like Chris Rosenau and Jon Mueller who have been a part of the scene for fifteen-odd years, and simply enjoy experimenting with guitars, drums and electronics. Those pieces keep them under the post-rock guise, but the music shifts continuously keeping the sound of each concurrent album a guessing game. And that’s all I ask as an obsessed listener regardless of genre.
Guitarist Rosenau and percussionist Mueller started Collections of Colonies of Bees in 1998 in a flurry of band forming in the Milwaukee rock scene (Pele, Vermont, Telecognac, and Raccoons all stem from a very close family of players including Rosenau and Mueller). Like the ethos of their label that was started the very same year – Crouton Music – CoCoB is an idea and any resulting sound is “only part of the picture”. The idea: what would traditional folk and bluegrass instrumentation sound like if brought up to date and utilized with modern experimental recording techniques and technology? The result: 1998’s Collections of Colonies of Bees and 2000’s Rance; both dreamy, drunk and heavily textured experimental folk albums that bridged Directions in Music, John Fahey, Gastr del Sol, Pullman, Sandy Bull and Cul de Sac.
The latter half of CoCoB’s existence has seen the band expand with each album and slowly but surely leave the backwoods instrumentation and folksy influences behind. By 2004’s Customer – released by Pele’s label-home Polyvinyl – the band was piecing together arrangements one digitally segmented second at a time. The tinkered stuttering sound makes for excellent headphone music and is a prime example of a well-balanced approach of melodicism and experimentation. This is where we find CoCoB in 2008, releasing Birds on Radium – a subsidiary of the excellent experimental label Table of Elements – and interestingly enough moving back to the core of post-rock: melodic electric guitar wizardry, technically proficient and rather anthemic kit work, and of course, a little studio gimmickry and electronic augmentation.
For their first time in CoCoB’s existence, Birds sounds like a record created with the live show in mind. Mueller’s recorded drums are left wholly in tact – a far cry from the previous few efforts – and while he occasionally works the odder intricacies of his kit, for the most part the rhythmic backbone is rather bombastic and triumphant. Rosenau, joined by baritone guitarist Dan Spack, keeps with the uplifting cadences by not so much riff-based workouts but tight, elliptical patterns that weave in and out of each other. Maybe a rather odd comparison, but it reminds me a lot of Sam Zurick’s approach to the guitar while providing obtuse leads to Make Believe and previously Owls. But those instances are of course well balanced with the subtle, free-form picking of the quieter moments from the record. Also now traveling members of the band, Thomas Wincek and former Pele member Jim Schoenecker augment the hearty rock sound with warm touches of Fender Rhodes, analog synthesizers and the occasional electronic buzzing.
Four tracks in nearly forty minutes, Birds doesn’t as much transcend the boundaries of post-rock as enliven the genre’s best attributes. “Flocks II” and “Flocks III”, though sprinkled with curious minimalist edits and electronic twinkles, adhere to the cymbal-driven climax and comedown approach with militaristic cadences counteracting the warmly chiming guitars. “Flocks I” is a bit more untamed structure-wise, and in fact sounds like an unedited outtake from the Customer sessions. And finally, “Flocks IV” delivers the inviting melodicism the band has been perfecting the last ten years as rhythmic patterns are layered and tenderly interlocked as established by the Reichian School of Arranging.
Birds is not particularly the indefinable album I had hoped from Collections of Colonies of Bees, but it is an excellent reminder of how much I enjoy post-rock when it is performed with a sunny disposition. However easily categorized it is though, Rosenau and Mueller are talented musicians, and Birds is crafted with a crisp idea in mind and impeccable production. They now just exist outside of those stuffy headphones. And besides, it’s about time post-rock fans started getting out of the house more anyways.
