Dry Cleaning

Also, jon v c, I frequently feel like the stupidest person in the thread for my banal posts, I’m sorry that one came across as condescending but usually I’m explaining things to myself.

Feels very weird that this is isn't being widely spoken of in the terms of something quite brilliant tbh. Liberty Log alone has single-handedly rescued Anglo post-rock from a decade of torpor

It's more quiet, more unassuming, more humble, and yet contains vastly more galaxies than any number of these Squid types combined. It isn't just the frontwoman, rightly foregrounded. This band's secret weapon is its music. And so the Life Without Buildings comparisons make more sense this time

Listen to that broken, gasping, intermittent, perplexed groove that swells beneath Liberty Log and tell me it isn't marvellous

Feels very weird that this is isn't being widely spoken of in the terms of something quite brilliant tbh. Liberty Log alone has single-handedly rescued Anglo post-rock from a decade of torpor

― imago, Monday, October 24, 2022 8:38 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i like this band and album, and i know you're just going to do you which is absolutely fine, but i think it should be registered (for probably the millionth time idk) that this kind of baroque meritocratic praise which also just kind of makes things up that aren't even real might actually hinder the band dry cleaning from becoming more widely appreciated afaict.

ppl weren't kidding about how high the vocals are mixed

If anything the lyrics were sometimes hard to discern on the last one for those of us with, ah, attention problems, but they're well foregrounded here.

I'm hoping to hear four of these songs on a KEXP show presented by Cheryl Waters.

i like this way more than the first one, musically it's so much more interesting

yeah, i'm enjoying this album a lot though, unlike LJ, I am finding the back half less compelling.

I knew their guitarist was cool. Did I know he was THIS cool though?

https://worldofechomusic.com/blogs/inner-world/inner-world-027-dry-cleaning

i love the instrumentation and especially the guitar on "No Decent Shoes Fora Rain" so much

i like this way more than the first one, musically it's so much more interesting

this is otm, but also why it's disappointing that the vocals are so high in the mix, keeps pulling me back from the really interesting stuff going on behind her.

they are so loud you could pull them back 25% and they'd still be the loudest thing in the mix by far, i know what you're saying about how it keeps you at arm's length in some way

Not hearing the imbalance, maybe a hair more prominent than NLL but in no way detrimental to the music for me. Parish absolutely knows what he’s doing mixing small bands with charismatic vocals, and the band have talked enthusiastically about his role in bringing ideas to fruition. They’re an excellent band but a genuine 50/50 with Shaw in terms of appeal.

I'm not hearing the imbalance, and, yeah, I like the sax and synth touches on 'Icebergs' and 'Anna Calls From The Arctic.'

I love the bickering in “Kwenchy Kups” too

the vocal mix i think is what sets this record apart. this band did not click for me really at all until this album

Obviously what one thinks about the mix or how successful one finds it as an intentional choice is one thing, but I can't see how you wouldn't notice that Florence's vocals are much louder in the mix than anything else. I've listened to it on headphones via my iPhone rip, the original CD in my car and the original CD on my home setup and it feels immediately obvious to me.

I feel like she's definitely floating 'above' the music on the opener, but that's been around for months and I've revisited it infrequently since the rest of the LP dropped. That track doesn't feel particularly representative and it just didn't occur to me elsewhere, presumably precisely because it didn't detract from the experience. I mean, it's not as though there is a definitively 'correct' way of mixing. (Or is there lol?)

People IRL have made exactly the same observation so I'm prepared to believe it's palpably... atypical.

I've ended up listening to it again now dammit. Updated opinion: definitely better than NLL.

I listen to this band to hear inventive guitar music roiling around Shaw's quietly intense thought process, the mix delivers. I don't need them to sound like other bands.

Totes.

Also: one of my odder hobbies is watching how bands' sets evolve over time, despite rarely managing to attend stuff. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dry-cleaning/2022/pryzm-kingston-upon-thames-england-5bbe9398.html

Whoops! Premature submission. I was going to note that their sets tend to be fairly static and that they introduced the bulk of Stumpwork only in the last couple of weeks. BUT it came at the expense of "Viking Hair", leaving only "Meghan" from 2019. This is a major tragedy lol.

rats, I like "Viking Hair"

fwiw, my annoyance with the mix doesn't mean I don't like this, I really do. It's even better than the debut! I just wish the vocals didn't kinda overwhelm everything else at times.

I like the album, more than the first as I said, I just cannot comprehend listening to this and not thinking damn these vocals are really loud

Clearly they read this site. "Viking Hair" was back on Tuesday night. :) (Though it was a slightly longer set overall: "Leafy" and "Unsmart Lady" returned too.) Yes, I know, this IS a pathological level of attention to such details.

inverse ...and justice for all bass mixing of the vocal aside, i'm really love this more every time i listen

Yes me too.

sometimes the guitars give me vini reilly vibes which is always welcome

yes!

I also agree with the above comments about this reminds a lot of Life Without Buildings but not enough to be a carbon copy. This band and especially this album are similar to LWB but scratch a different itch.

two bonus tracks from the new album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiGKGonhdQ8

well "swampy" should satisfy the "vocals too loud" camp

sorry, I meant "sombre two" there!

Coming here in January on the world tour - I bailed on Stereolab and Boy Harsher this summer because I wasn't comfortable in a big crowd yet but maybe I'll be braver in a couple of months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6l1GYjOt-A

Yeah DC payed a show in April in Baltimore and I just wasn’t ready yet to be in a rock club situation, but January should be okay even if I’m the only person masking.

seeing them TONIGHT!

they fucking provided blank

oh and Viking Hair was present and correct, sounded awesome

:) Regretting not finding some way to attend one of THREE Vic shows. That vid 5 posts up is just rubbing it in!

well this is as much as I saw of them at the Corner, or at least my arm raised over the idiot head of the guy whose main reason for attending was to hug his girlfriend and chat to his mates
https://i.imgur.com/LuxjSns.jpg

i enjoyed them last night in Syd - they're such an interesting live proposition! the lack of regular rock show dynamics took a bit of getting used to (obv not a surprise knowing their sound, but it was still striking in a performance setting) - it felt like the set started pretty sedate and got more vigorous - definitely glad I went, although perhaps didn't provide any revelations beyond the records

on the sloping edge of a vase of flowers
on the front, Chinese landscape
on the sides, figures in a Dutch landscape
it's Europe

rather neutered performance of probably my least favourite track on Stumpwork:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUW4TmzWYfk

On tour this month in the US. Going to see them in Washington.

that is a kinda meh live run on tonight show but maybe fallon was boring them

catching them at the start of february in nyc.

well they were lovely sounding live, but the laconic anti-charisma thing was more than a bit stifling after a half an hour of standing in place and playing.
sunn o))) had a more active stage presence. So did The Archies.

bands play here all the time. it's 2020. get a grip.

^ play there. xpost

wasn't what the person who upped the recording was saying re UK bands at least