Working at their own pace in the Indiana-based home studio of
Dan Burton
,
Windsor for the Derby
's
Dan Matz
and
Jason McNeely
seem to have established an anything goes mentality.
We Fight Til Death
swings between elongated
post-rock
experiments
and vaguely tense, concise
indie
. It has its moments, to be sure, but also suffers from detachment, like a sonic daydream. Fragilely delivered, opaque lyrics mar this
Death
, getting in the way of instrumentation that's always organic, precise, and inviting. Luckily then,
includes songs like opener
"Melody of a Fallen Tree,"
an eight-minute controlled burn that builds from a consistent guitar rattle and breathy organ into what sounds like a tickling
tribute to
New Order
. There are some weak vocals in there, but the jamming overtakes them. Same goes for
"Nightingale."
"The Door Is Red"
is a contemplative piece that winds spidery, faraway guitar through an insistent drumbeat, while
"Flight"
spends a few minutes on the tonal, hesitant plain, garnering
Windsor
's usual comparison to
Labradford
. The title track and
"Black Coats"
spike this relative tranquility with screechy distortion and the angular, compressed rhythms of
post-punk
, and
"A Spring Like Sixty"
's warm acoustic strumming, pretty violin, and quite gorgeous, languid pace offers yet another side of the group's sound.
gets distracted easily; all of its ideas are great, but they don't always come to fruition. Still, that same gripe might actually attract listeners who like schizophrenic albums. ~ Johnny Loftus