10/21/2009 By Vish Khanna

Though they've never been predictable, twisting and turning down a veering path of whatever post-rock is supposed to be, Do Make Say Think strike a reflective tone on the wondrous Other Truths. By their own reckoning, Do Make's previous acclaimed record, You, You're a History in Rust, marked a departure, featuring new instrumentation and vocals by members of Great Lake Swimmers, Deep Dark United and Akron/Family. That effort and the members' divergent interests in groups like Justin Small's Lullabye Arkestra, Ohad Benchetrit's Years and Charles Spearin's Happiness Project prompted a self-evaluation of their methodology as purveyors of powerful soundscapes. While the Akrons return for Other Truths, there's a marked shift back to basics, so to speak; the band nestle into the forceful, epic structures they're best known for. It's such a bold visitation ― these four songs hover around ten minutes each and are self-titled. "Do" rocks under a few different, guitar-led grooves, "Make" is a hypnotically slow-building, psychedelic melange, "Say" follows vague Afrobeat, pulsing with a jazz underpinning and "Think" is appropriately ruminative. Whether a swan song or not, Other Truths is Do Make Say Think at their best.

Is this a return to your core sound?
Spearin: With our last record, we were more adventurous, bringing in more singing and acoustic instruments, and I think we did a great job with that. We really do thrive in the world of longer songs and feel more fulfilled making them. So we stuck to that pattern here.

These song titles seem significant.
We're coming up on 15 years as a band and this does seem to reflect what we've been doing the whole time. I don't know the next time we're going to make a record; we're very slow. But it felt good to name the songs after the band as, not quite a conclusion, but I do feel we've come to some conclusion of our style.

Do your individual musical pursuits impact Do Make?
The whole idea of a band is kind of an illusion; it's just a bunch of people getting together to play and it's easier to package it under one name. It's a community of people and, in that sense, it's not unusual to mix it all up. So, even though Do Make Say Think have been around a long time, it doesn't really exist; it's just a happy illusion!
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