Client/Server
The End Of
(Three Lonely Kaiju)
It was only about a year ago that the duo of Client/Server released their self-titled debut. After hearing that release, I felt like there were definitely some great ideas, but the execution of things just wasn't quite there yet. Layering droney guitar patterns over sampled sounds and other noisescapes, the release just seemed off by a little bit on each track. Samples (some of which were rather annoying) looped ad nauseum, and although nice atmosphere crept through sometimes, it wasn't a release I found myself listening to very much.
Well, whatever. It's now a year later, and it's obvious that the group has progressed quite a bit beyond what they were working with on that first disc. By nature of the groups sound, it's still more challenging than most things that you're going to hear, but The End Of just shows more layers of subtlety.
The beginnings of The End Of are interesting in that the group didn't just write songs out of the blue. While touring in support of their aforementioned last release, they began playing Hideaki Anno's film The End Of Evangelion on a screen behind them, which in turn inspired them to change songs to fit the movie better, and even write new ones to compliment it more. The disc opens with "9v," and after some quiet electronic gurglings, a repeated guitar melody makes its way into the mix and travels alongside for awhile. Eventually, it gains in distortion, until the background tone is completely buried in sound, then quiets down again to close things out.
The second track "1 Crayon" follows sort of the same quiet/loud/quiet pattern, but the middlesection is even more thunderous, and it drifts into the squelching electronics of "(Not For(No Fun)) Now" before dropping into the ultra-minimal (but quite lovely) drone of "Two Women." It's on "I've Got A Mandate, Shazam!" that the group goes almost entirely electronic, layering looped, haunting arpeggios until the end in which a bit of distortion threatens to overtake things (but never quiet does). The epic-length album closer of "Seven Stars" swirls another guitar pattern in a quiet soup, playing so quietly that it makes one wish it was a little bit louder in order to hear the subtleties.
The husband/wife duo (who played music at their own wedding) of Client/Server make it seem a little unclear with this release as to whether they will continue their musical ventures with the same name (hence the title), or perhaps move in a different direction altogether for their next release. Invited to play at Terrastock 5 (alongside the likes of Sonic Youth, Damon And Naomi with Ghost and others), they're definitely on the route to making a bigger name for themselves in drone (with a touch of noise).
Rating: 6.5
