Triage is another of Methyl Ethel's exercises in the transient and indefinite. The Australian quartet's third album is introspective, but carries the weight of an out-of-body experience. The result is a blurry exploration of the subconscious, backed by modern synth tracks and retro drum machines.
Leader singer Jake Webb's vocals often sound androgynous, which adds to Triage's hazy effect; there's a certain subliminal seduction that comes from not being able to pin down a time period or identity. It sounds like nostalgia for something you haven't heard before. In "Scream Whole," Webb repeatedly sings: "I can feel it in the rest of me, a part of what appears to be more than just a taste of my tongue."
The instrumentals for the track are — comparatively — pared-down compared to the rest of the album, and the edges between body and mind, vocals and instrumentation are especially blurred.
Methyl Ethel's second album, Everything Is Forgotten, was utterly hypnotic in how it pulled together repetition and percussion, especially on the track "Ubu." Triage is worthwhile in its own right, but it falls just short.
(4AD)Leader singer Jake Webb's vocals often sound androgynous, which adds to Triage's hazy effect; there's a certain subliminal seduction that comes from not being able to pin down a time period or identity. It sounds like nostalgia for something you haven't heard before. In "Scream Whole," Webb repeatedly sings: "I can feel it in the rest of me, a part of what appears to be more than just a taste of my tongue."
The instrumentals for the track are — comparatively — pared-down compared to the rest of the album, and the edges between body and mind, vocals and instrumentation are especially blurred.
Methyl Ethel's second album, Everything Is Forgotten, was utterly hypnotic in how it pulled together repetition and percussion, especially on the track "Ubu." Triage is worthwhile in its own right, but it falls just short.