Bear in Heaven
(Hometapes)
Jon Philpot's second full length as Bear in Heaven is an inchoate monster of an album, weighted with ritual percussive clangor and slow blossoming modal melodies. It's also a good deal more pop than you might expect, given Philpot's current association with experimental Hometapes and his history (via previous band Presocratics) with avant garde Table of Elements. Not that he's headed for the Top 40 anytime soon -- elements of chaos and experiment lurk in nearly every cut of Beast Rest Forth Mouth. Still, they are unexpectedly leavened by dance-floor jitters of synthesizer, buoyant pop hooks and the slush of disco cymbals. You can hear Yes and Tears for Fears, Human League and Soft Cell side by side in these compositions, a weird, effortful, compelling mix of prog, new wave, rock, pop and even blue-eyed soul.
"Beast in Peace" starts things off with a pulverizing four-on-the-floor beat, drums, guitars, bass and keyboards all struck in staccato lock-step. Only little flicks of hand drums are allowed to wander off the beat, which is otherwise monolithic. Against this stirring, almost militarily precise framework, Philpot's vocals drift and twine like smoke, half obscured by percussion, in a high, almost-falsetto that sounds a bit like Bob Mould in Sugar. The verse is subtle, but the chorus is enormous, anthemic and encased in chilled, echoey glamour. It's pitched halfway between melodic rock and new wave, evoking Parts & Labor as much as Tears for Fears. The next cut, "Wholehearted Mess" digs deeper into the dance floor aesthetic, its beat reinforced by skittery, funk-bleating bursts of synthesizer and disco 16th notes on the high hat. "Lovesick Teenagers" is similarly strobe-lit, a pulse of Human League-ish synthesizers and syncopated cymbal slaps giving spine and rhythm to slow melodies. It's maybe worth mentioning that Joe Stickney, who also drums for Panther, is the one behind the kit, working the fine line between funky hedonics and primordial heft. (Adam Wills and Sadek Bazaara switch off on guitar and bass, while Philpot sings and plays guitar and keyboards.)
"Drug a Wheel", near the end, is less pop than some of the other songs, its tenor ominous, glossy and chilled, an industrial clank and groan in its giant mechanical rhythms. Philpot sings as if from the back of a warehouse, his voice slipping in and out of ambient noises, sometimes deadpan but often with a bit of soul slipped into his syncopated cadences. It's a serious song, a big song, its delicate melody blown into vast dramatic proportions, but not without a sense of play. If you like any of the current crop of synth experimenters - Cold Cave comes to mind - Bear in Heaven is worth checking out.
Standout Tracks: "Beast in Peace," "Drug a Wheel" JENNIFER KELLY
