There it is, the second release of Set Fire to Flames, the post-rock all star band form Montreal, Canada. Yet again the 13 piece collective recorded the album in a short period of time, hardly taking any sleep, and being in varying levels of intoxication. Most of the songs are improvised, though some pieces are build on compositions or rough sketches. The result of this process on the first album, “Sings Reign Rebuilder”, was a dark, creepy, but fragmented album.
This album is even darker, slower and sounds more haunted. Each piece sounds desolated, and seems to fit the recording location, an old barn at an abandoned farm in Ontario, perfectly well. The music differs from track to track, sometimes being soundscapes, then suddenly turning into brass improvisations, and then sounding minimal and repetitive as the first fly pan am record.
And there lies the biggest problem. Altough each track is amazing, they never seem finished, or fit in with the previous song. That makes it difficult to focus on the album as a whole, simply because all you get to hear are fragments of songs, or so it seems.
This album once again show Set Fire to Flames is capable of making amazing music, but also shows the same problem as the first album. It’s a collection of ideas, with nothing much to connect them together. I am left behind with a feeling of wanting more than this collection of sketches and improvisations. And it leaves me wondering what would happen if they would sit down on their next session with a more structured ideas.
