Roots & Crowns — Califone
Thrill Jockey
2006
Rating:


Califone's "Roots & Crowns" takes its title from a particular passage in Robertson Davies' 1981 novel "The Rebel Angels." In it, philosopher Parlabane compares the development of a person's character to how a tree's roots nurture its crown of leaves: the root "goes to our unseen depths — which means the messy stuff of life from which the real creation and achievement takes its nourishment," Parlabane says. "My advice to you, my dear, is to let your root feed your crown."

Taking that advice to heart, Califone delves into its twin roots of folk and noise, finding the elemental essentials of each to produce an album that's at once old-fashioned and experimental.

"Pink & Sour," for instance, contains the basics of a barn stomp in its chugging rhythm and bluesy guitar, but it's driven by tribal drums and random bursts of noise. "Our Kitten Sees Ghosts" is a ghostly folk tale in which Califone frontman Tim Rutili sings about "the way you shatter / when you hit the water" as icy swirls slowly overtake the melody. Most amazingly, Califone transforms Psychic TV's industrial-leaning "The Orchids" into a shimmering dream of acoustic guitar, harmonica and the atmospheric whirring of an electronic organ.

Pushing folk forward and bringing noise and electronica back, Califone manages an album of rustic, mechanized beauty that's the band's crowning achievement.

Posted Thursday, December 7, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/califone/roots.crowns