TROUBLE BOOKS
– gathered tones
(CD, Own)
Ohio based trio Trouble Books
has left a mark on the scene of electronic songwriting; you know, the kind
of melancholic, introspective, made at home songwriting that so elusively
mixes electronic trickery and the whole library of sounds so desperately
constructed throughout the last decade by millions of electronic music
artists with the pop appeal and songwriting craft in the vein of Nick Drake
and Tim Buckley, which of course means acoustic guitars and emotional
introspection. With “gathered tones”, even though the title hints at an
even looser and more ephemeral viewpoint, Trouble Books seem to have taken a
big step into a more concrete territory. Not only do they show themselves on
the artwork of the CD – albeit only from the back on the innersleeve, no
pop stardom as of yet for them – but also the melodies seem to have taken
the fore in the construction of the songs. Probably as a reaction to that,
most of the songs end with a coda of synthie sounds not exactly matched to
the song itself (e.g. “Past the new parking deck”).
A song like “From Colfax
Place” illustrates that kind of internal struggle quite well. Adorned with
an almost perfect indie pop melody, there is the sound of shards of glass
being whirled after the first verse and chorus, and the second verse is only
half the first and then the song is over. A disappointment, in some ways,
because there would have been so much to build on in this song, and a band
like Spiritualized would have made it into a big, orchestral piece of
harmonic beauty. But Trouble Books is more internally oriented, more towards
small spaces and small sizes, which they fill with lush sounds and half a
dozen layers of different sounds at once. This seems to be their constant
fight with themselves. I can hear one of them say, while sitting together
and laboring at their songs: “Hey, hold it. Let’s not get too obvious
here.” And someone else answers: “Here is a little soundlayer I have
worked on last week, let’s try this.” And then they all sink back into
the warm hug of their music together.
Because, let’s be honest,
pop appeal is a mighty big word to use here. Trouble Books is nowhere close
to any kind of chart or radio play. Unfortunately, one should add, but this
is not a perfect world. Not like the world that Trouble Books create with
their instruments. It is only Sunday afternoon every seven days and time
accelerates and winds down according to the pace of the rat race we take
part in. On “gathered tones” it is always a lazy Sunday afternoon with
the sun shining in (no matter if it is winter or summer, the room is
modestly tempered) and time standing still, the world seeming to float ever
which way the gentle breeze takes it away to. This is music to watch plants
grow by.
In this respect it is at the
same time a consequential evolutionary step in the development of Trouble
Books, as well as a wonderful addition to the latest releases on Own
Records: Chihei
Hatakeyama’s “ghostly garden” or The Green Kingdom’s
“twig and twine” form the more ambient, purely ambient
electronic side to Trouble Books whereas The Firekites or The Charge Group fill the grid on the true pop
music side – and all of them in praise of a live according to nature,
filled with glee and meaning and overall gentle respect towards every living
creature. Big words, I know, but with a winter as hard as the one outside
this year, there is a lot of time to lean back and think about what truly
makes live bearable, meaningful and satisfactory. And the gloom rising is a
fertile ground for thoughts like these. And finally, “gathered tones” is
a perfect backdrop fertilizer to catalyze ideas like these.
