Saturday, May 7, 2011

Halves

Halves are a post- rock, experimental band from Dublin who have been together since 2006; to date they have just one album entitled 'It Goes, It Goes (Forever And Ever). The five piece create mostly an ambient mood with their wide array of musical instruments which include synthesizer, piano, guitars, drums, bass and even glockenspiel just to mention some. The album released in October of last year was recorded in the Hotel2Tango studios in Montreal which provided the band with a vast variety of instruments and effects that dated between the 1930's and the 1980's. All eleven tracks were recorded in a big room live on reel to reel tapes, additional work was done to the songs later in their own Dublin studio. This is the band performing 'May Your Enemies Never Find Happiness' on the 'Other Voices' concert series from Dingle Co. Kerry in 2009, in which they were favoured by many as the best band that year.



Again it is not entirely easy to define who Halves sound like musically, perhaps you could mention bands like Mogwai or God Speed You Black Emperor but however their use of such a mix of different instruments surely places them apart from making simple comparisons. Their sound is certainly cinematic, obviously helped along with the influence of Efrim Menuck from God Speed..who worked together with the band in the recording of the album. 
My personal favourite song from Halves is 'Glowing And Glow' which features Amy Millan from the Canadian group Stars on guest vocals. This song is a slow burner that grows and grows on you as indeed the whole album does..



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like that alot.

Joseph