Regular readers will probably know by now that we are big fans of Old Earth here at Wake the Deaf. A couple of months back we told you that Todd Umhoefer was preparing a new album, A Wake in the Wells, and thanks to the kind people at mini50 records, I’ve had the pleasure of spending the last few weeks getting to know it.
If you’re even vaguely familiar with Old Earth, then you’ll know that Todd Umhoefer is very much his own man. His influences range from modern-day hip hop to golden oldie pop songs, a blend which he builds on a foundation of experimental folk. Using looped guitars and sparse vocals, Umhoefer creates some of the most interesting and forward-facing art that’s out there today. The album sleeve contains a quote from film soundtrack extraordinaire Bernard Herrmann, beginning with the line, “Musically I count myself as an individualist”. I’m not sure I could think of a better way than these seven simple words to sum up Umhoefer and his artistic goals.
The album consists of just five tracks (named simply ‘Track 1’, ‘Track 2’, etc.), but spans over 30 minutes, with each track shifting and morphing into a variety of guises. In fact, the liner notes show each track split into several component parts, each with a title of its own. These sections meld into one another like events in a dream, the transitions often surreally sudden and spontaneous but retaining an eerie kind of absurd logic. This novel song structure never feels redunant either. It is to Umhoefer’s credit that each element always seems necessary and appropriate.
This non-conformity is illustrated perfectly on the opening track, an eleven minute behemoth which does everything but break the listener in gently. It kicks off with a section called ‘Well Abandonment’, an insistent, driven start of barely restrained guitar and minimal drum work, before the opening line of,
“I wanted walls, for something to push against.
I wanted waves, for something to row.”
One of Umhoefer’s strengths is his ability to make such vague, cryptic lyrics sound important and relevant, with his words often seeming abstract and dislocated. To return to the dream analogy, the lyrics don’t necessarily make narrative sense but they just feel right. The track shifts around the 3:30 mark as a taut guitar line drifts in from the ether, heralding the oncoming of the second section, ‘some Gates’ll swing wide, for us’. This builds to include shuffling drums and Umhoefer’s cry of, “the whole village had their hands in!” The repetitive melody and ethereal ambience are hypnotic, and the best way to listen is to put these tracks on repeat and just let things wander. The third and final segue of ‘Track 1’ occurs around 8:40. ‘Accept that the mark will outlast you’ again features lean and focused guitar work which cuts across the song razor-like, providing a bright and uplifting end to the first track. Soon drums are added and the whole thing becomes a rollicking indie rock tune, perhaps the most conventional “rock music” moment we have seen yet from Old Earth.
Another stand-out, ‘Track 3’, starts as a sign on the horizon, a wisp of dark smoke against the blue-white sky. An ominous force gathers pace and momentum as it approaches, eventually hurtling forward in the furious motion of frantic guitar. Then the vocals are upon you:
“What the hell are these bells doing out?”
Closely followed by one of my favourite lyrical passages on the album:
“One night, I woke up from a nightmare
One night, I woke up from the rain
One night, I woke up from the house shook
And one night I woke up from being alone”
This ominous demand is either a simple set of ambiguous statements or the documentation of some kind of personal epiphany. The track then morphs at around 4:00, a weird reverb-y disintegration paving the way for the slow-building urgency of ‘No Cerra, No’.
If you’ve read this far, then you have probably realised that A Wake in the Wells is not an album that’s going to hurry everyone to the dance floor. If you want toe-tapping sunniness or sing-along choruses then please move along. Good-time rock and roll this is not. Instead we get dynamic, instinctive music-making from a musician whose regard for “the rules” begins and ends with his own innate understanding of them.
This is an album to spend lots of time with. You need to let it wash over you, to become familiar with its dusty corners and idiosyncrasies. I find it difficult to like lots of experimental music, the super-cerebral stuff that you need an advanced maths qualification to understand. A Wake in the Wells is nothing like that. Yes Umhoefer experiments, but all the while he is focused on making something honest and true. I guess the experimentation is simply a means to an end, a way for him to attempt to convey his own personal messages.
I think what I’m trying to get at is that Old Earth’s music is sincere. And I don’t know about you, but sincerity is pretty important to me in art. In fact, I think it may be the most important thing of all. If I’m reading a book or watching a film or listening to an album, the one thing I want is for the artist to mean it. And I realised when listening to A Wake in the Wells over these last few weeks, goddamn does Umhoefer mean it. This is the man who last year (in an interview for WTD) said the killer line, “Fuck irony. I’m trying to make something to uplift myself, and it’s reassuring to me that other people can relate to it.”
So I hope that it’s pretty clear that I like this album a lot. It has drive and ambition and best of all it has heart. I think I’ll let Bernard Herrmann have the last word, his closing remarks capturing perfectly why I love this album (and Old Earth’s music in general) so very much:
“I am not interested in music, or any work of art, that fails to stimulate appreciation of life and, more importantly, pride in life…I believe that only music which springs out of genuine personal emotion is alive and important.”
You can order A Wake in the Wells right now via mini50 records. Please do, you won’t regret it.
P.S. Our American friends will be pleased to hear that Old Earth is currently on tour. You have four chances to see him this week:
Thurs. August 28th, 2014– Turntable (Jamestown, NC), w/ Twin Brother
Fri. August 29th, 2014– Daisy Dukes (Nashville, TN), w/ Twin Brother
Sat. August 30th, 2014– 27 Live (Evanston, IL), w/ Twin Brother
Sun. August 31st, 2014– Club Garibaldi’s (Milwaukee, WI) ALBUM RELEASE w/ Twin Brother
& Joe Crockett
P.P.S. The super-cool cover art is by Jennifer Mehigan.