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Marc Ostermeier, a songwriter and keyboardist from Austin (Texas),
started out in 1988 playing moody synth-pop.
The first self-released self-titled cassette was recorded with the help of
Eric Ostermeier (also on keyboards). Several cassettes followed:
Shift (AMM, 1989),
Intact (AMM, 1990),
Gripping a Cup (AMM,1992),
Big Closed Sky (AMM, 1992).
With the addition of vocalist Tanya Maus, the six-song cassette,
Resonate (Whirlpool, 1993), marked a departure that led to
the mature sound of the seven-song
EP A Folding Sieve (ND, 1995 - Captured Tracks, 2011), recorded as a trio.
In songs such as Resonate,
the suave voice of Tanya Maus and the guitar and synth washes
build a trance which is reminiscent of
My Bloody Valentine
and Opal.
Even better, Rolling, Breathe Salt and
Clean bridge the sumptous dream-pop of the
Cocteau Twins with the magnificent
madrigal of the Hugo Largo.
Shift may well be the first band ever to re-enact the latter band's magic.
Another little wonder, the single Own Two Feet/ Soothed (ND, 1997),
kept hopes alive that the band would survive.
A Folding Sieve (Words On Music, 2002) compiles the first EP, the
single and some unreleased tracks.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Micol Sorrentino)
I Shift sono un trio proveniente da Austin (Texas) che ha prodotto un solo, ma eccezionale, EP, A Folding Sieve (ND, 1995).
In canzoni come Resonate,
la soave voce di Tanya Maus, la chitarra e le ondate di suono
creano una sorta di stato ipnotico che ricorda
My Bloody Valentine
e Opal.
Meglio ancora, Rolling, Breathe Salt e
Clean collegano il sontuoso dream-pop dei Cocteau Twins con il magnifico madrigale dei Hugo Largo.
I Shift potrebbero essere il primo gruppo ad avere riprodotto la magia di questi ultimi.
Un'altra piccola meraviglia, il singolo Own Two Feet (ND, 1997), ha tenuto in vita la speranza che il gruppo potesse sopravvivere.
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Eric Ostermeier's main project is actually Motion Picture, which he shares
with John Rigg (guitar).
Ostermeier and Rigg formed Motion Picture at Monmouth College (Illinois)
in 1992, then moved it to Minneapolis.
In his own words,
"Motion Picture writes music that invites linkages between film,
sound, and narrative. The songs emphasize conversational
lyrics that evoke picturesque images and themes from the
distant romantic era of black and white celluloid".
Every Last Romance (Words on Music, 1998) was Motion Picture's
debut album. Despite the declaration of intent,
the closest reference to Motion Picture's sound would be
Luna, albeit augmented with a classical sensibility.
And second would be San Francisco's acid-rock of the 1960s.
The delicate, jingling cartilage of Every Last Romance merges
renaissance, mediterranean and folk-rock styles.
The brisk, dancing
While I Walk You Home is as close to a Mozart-ian rondo` as folk music
can get.
A Round Sour Morning opens with a dreamy, almost psychedelic,
almost raga, chirping of guitars.
If melody, counterpoint and tempo inject the songs with humble splendor,
arrangements up the ante by introducing a more philosophical element,
a deeper sense of life.
The result is a sort of zen grandeur, which is still simple and pure while
pointing to a grander design.
Sarah West's cello leads the lounge-music of
Who You Are Is Not Who You Were,
bestowing on it the formal beauty of chamber music.
A Brief Look at the Unfaithful is a tender lullaby accented by
mournful cello and ringing guitar.
I Can't Write Love Letters is a Bach-ain aria masquerading as a
Bacharach melody.
The closing elegy, She Talked, Laughed, and Walked Away, best summarizes
the lazy, meditative, elegant, and plaintive core of
Motion Picture's compositions.
The leader's discreet whisper is a fitting voice for this art of
understated emotions and lulling melodies.
While it seems plain and bland, it can "carry" tunes like
Forgetting My Schoolboy Charm, that mix eastern scales and
hypnotic strumming.
Elvis Costello would die to achieve
this kind of magic balance and effortless delivery.
For a Distant Movie Star (Words on Music, 1999)
was the mature expression of that idea,
a fragile folk-rock embedded in quasi renaissance grace and
quasi classical (guitar/cello) arrangements, embellished with erudite lyrics.
Boasting a fuller sound,
the lively lullaby Once He Fell, interrupted by a splendid
duet of guitar and cello,
the solemn hymn The Sound the Rain Made, wrapped in a baroque line of
cello,
and the majestic movement If Only We Met by Train,
the standout in terms of quiet elegance,
paint another warm (motion) picture of the leader's mythical universe.
The guitar's flourishes, borrowed from Eastern music rather than country or folk
music, often steal the show, as in
April Rides Her Bicycle,
rivaling Leo Kottke and John Fahey at their most transcendental.
The Girl and the Boy is pop-jazz that has the hypnotic quality of a
Tibetan mantra.
Melody reigns supreme, tucked in
the waltzing ballad I Know It Will Rain on My Wedding Day
and dilated in the romantic elegy In the Half-Melted Snow.
and modulated in the breezy ode My First Autumn Verse.
Abandoning some of the intellectual stance,
Motion Picture's second album was an attempt to make music that was less
personal and "easier" to listen to.
A Paper Gift (Words On Music, 2001) even boasts a chamber quartet:
Sarah West (cello), Ingrid Liepins (violin), Josi Wergen (french horn) and Merilee Klemp (english horn).
A Paper Gift and Winter 1988
are formally classical sonatas, embellished with
shimmering guitar tones and narrated by a dreamy whisper.
The pathetic, mediterranean melody of Alida is a touching tribute
to an actress.
Promising Young Actress and
The First Name on Your Dance Card are upbeat and breezy, and could
be Luna songs.
Twisting the Apple Stem and Me in Your Past Tense
are pastoral folk lullabies the way Donovan used
to make them in the 1960s.
The heavenly string and horn arrangements add atmosphere to songs that
are already magically catchy.
In a sense, the dedication to cinema detracts from a project that could
be far more universal. The music itself is delicate, introverted poetry that transcends
the lyrics.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx) Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami
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In the meantime, in August 1997, Shift changed their name to Should and recorded
the album Feed Like Fishes (Words On Music, 1998),
which was followed by the EP Five Forty Five (Words on Music, 2000).
Again, the line-up was Marc Ostermeier and Eric Ostermeier on keyboards and
guitars, Tanya Maus on vocals.
The album opens with the brief instrumental Fish Fourteen,
an exotic Brian Eno-ian vignette drenched in twangy guitar and
electrical statics.
Tender whispers and creaking distortion lull
the soaring, shoegazing Sarah Missing into
Velvet Underground-grade trance.
These two tracks pretty much set the pace for the rest of the album.
Should's psychedelic madrigals run the gamut of emotions from ecstatic
(the exotic lullaby of Spangle) to gothic
(Nico's eerie liturgy is echoed in It Still Would and
Its Pull Is Slight),
but ultimately stick to that paradigm of burning guitars and quiet vocals.
The band's rare experiments with simple accompaniments are no less successful
(the touching melody of Lullen over a music-box motif of the piano,
the ambient instrumental Inst2, the closing trip-hoppish
Both Eyes Open)
and may hold the secret to broaden the somewhat narrow horizons of the debut.
The trio's stubborn quest for beauty relies on very few elements and stands
in stark contrast with the bombast of contemporary rock.
Should's Like A Fire Without Sound (Words on Music, 2011), recorded
over a period of five years, is the quintessential ethereal atmospheric trip;
gentle meditations like Glasshouse (something between a baroque requiem and a surf lullaby),
dreamy melodies like Slumberland,
etc.
By comparison the jangling whispery Turned tables and
the feathery singalong The Great Pretend
sound like rock and roll.
The instrumental Always returning beats all the songs in terms of
philosophical poignancy.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx) Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami
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