Televise

Based in New York City, Calla prove that not every band from NYC are riding the post-punk wave to the riches on the shore. This album employs spiky guitars and atmosperics to provide a dense and dark listening experience.

Opener 'Strangler' follows typical song structures combined with downright scary lyrics, but the rest of the album is more experimental. 'Monument' is sparse, which makes its haunting guitar line that much more efficatious. 'Don't Hold Your Breath' moves in with the chilling lyric 'This day is dead' and the vocal is briefly offset by a bright and chirpy guitar segment before squalling darkness comes along and casts a pall over the end of the song, and 'Pete the Killer' is an atmospheric highlight along the lines of a quiet MBV moment, and its held together by a simple-yet-effective (and unforgettable) bass line.

'Customized' starts the second half of the album, "Televised's" most potent set of songs. 'Customized' doesn't sound like anything memorable at first, but upon repeated listens the slithering guitar, howling atmospherics and distant lyrics make it a darkly satisfying masterpiece.

'As Quick as it Comes/Carrera' starts as a nearly silent ballad and ambles along for two minutes before the band builds the song to an unforgettable crescendo that could be a quieter, more refined and reigned-in Godspeed You Black Emperor song or Low if that band stretched out a little bit more. It is certainly one of the albums highlights, and after 'Alacran's' instrumental atmospherics blow by, 'Televise' comes along as one of the albums two towering masterpieces. It starts off with a skittering drum beat and funky strut before ice-cold guitar rises to the surface and flips the song upside down. After the lyrics cut out just over two minutes into the song, the guitar morphs into a Spector-ish wall of sound, fades away to silence before coming back like an avalanche down a sun-baked mountain.

Calla have crafted a memorable, if not dark and atmospheric, album that at first sounds too basic to be enthralling, but upon repeated spins the listener is rewarded with new facets of musicianship. It's like crawling into your bed at night - you know it's familiar but it takes a few moments to find the comfort zone. "Televised" won't blow you over the first time, but each successive listen is a reward unto itself. If atmospheric music is your bag, fill it with this album.

The album is close to Interpol in mood but borrows its atmospherics and flickering guitars from Up-era REM, and on 'As Quick As It Comes', the chiming guitars build steadily to a cacophonious climax in the vein of Mogwai or others of their post-rock contempories. Yet there's even a sense of funk in the sharp guitar work on 'Strangler' and album highlight 'Televised' which is near perfect. Other tracks are more acoustic, 'Monument' is beautifully sparse and 'Surface Scratch' is an understatedly heartbreaking closer.

Admittedly the middle of the album does at times seem repetitive and to mark little departure from the overall sound as the album moves from track to track, but this is only true to the drone-rock ideal where the tracks incorporate one moody whole. This band have serious potential and Televise is an underground gem well worth investigating.