Leaving None But Small Birds - The Body & Big|Brave - Review
The Body & Big|Brave
are quite the unexpected collaboration. The former is a two piece extreme metal project from the American north east who released one of the most brooding noise albums of 2021 back in February. The latter is a Canadian minimalist folk project who have toured with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion, and have slowly increased the use of heavier metal instrumentation into their music over the last few years.
Review By Lav:
Alright I've done a lot of contemporary, fun and accessible music recently. Let's get fucking experimental. Earlier this year The Body absolutely melted my skull with one of my favorite experimental records of the year so far I've Seen All That I Need To See and while I've always been sort of aware of Big|Brave, it's long overdue that I paid the act some more attention. When this collaboration was first announced I really wasn't sure what to expect given how little similarity or crossover their was between the bands sounds. But after reading the press and understanding the shared elements of soundplay that they were shooting for, I managed to get my hopes up. While Leaving None But Small Birds promises a lot in its 40 minute runtime, the actual delivery comes out a bit inconsistent.
The biggest complaint I have about a handful of these 7 tracks is that the appeal they have at the start, is pretty much all they've got sometimes for a long runtime. The opener Blackest Crow starts with a driving and methodical instrumental made up of a folky sound palette and some distant but incredibly distinct female vocals courtesy of Big|Brave's Robin Wattie. She sounds pretty witchy chanting out dramatic. naturalistic verses and the song never really loses its eerie energy as it methodically plods through a nearly 8 minute runtime. While it does get splashes of extra instrumentation here and there the sound of the song is mostly baker in from the first few minutes and that makes it a little difficult for me to stick with it for the full runtime.
Black Is The Colour is the only song here to start off with primarily acoustic instrumentation and while it certainly adds a raw element to the song, the addition is pretty strictly aesthetic. It sounds like something you'd stumble upon a bunch of cult members singing in the middle of the woods, but once again avoids much meaningful development and makes for a bit of a taxing listen from start to finish. Babes In The Woods is the closing track and perhaps the most sonically disjointed of all the songs here. While I like the combination of wailing guitar reverb and disconnected refrains cutting each other off and fighting for space, it all drains out across the tracks last few minutes and the record ends off on a surprisingly quiet and underwhelming note.
Once I Had A Sweetheart has the opposite problem, with all the right components of a track I would like but I just can't get behind it for some reason. While the refrains are cool they sound really similar to some that land on the albums better tracks. Ultimately the best part of the song is the final two minutes or so where everything starts to collapse in on itself in a very apocalyptic manner that I find super cool.
While I wasn't crazy about any of these songs I do find some fascinating soundplay in each of them. When those elements are paired with improved songwriting and thematically strong lyricism, they make an absolutely wonderful combo. Oh Sinner has another driving instrumental featuring some electric guitar that churns away as the track goes on. The vocals are just belting out in the background of the song with this loose and sort of haunting fragmentation. The song can pretty effectively beat you into submission across a few minutes and I'm all for it. Polly Gosford features a slow but absolutely rapturous instrumental with booming percussion and a thick consuming guitar riff. The vocals are once again distant but the way they call out and fight for space in the pummeling mix I find to be pretty harrowing. The song feels like the climactic last gasp of someone who knows they're doomed and it's entrancing.
The records best achievement, and a song so good it's probably worth listening to the entire album just to hear it in context, is Hard Times. It brings in what I think is an organ, the fact that I can't tell is what makes it such a cool sound to hover over the whole song. The raw strained vocals are a perfect accompaniment to the spiteful but resilient lyrics. At times I would even say she sounds like an angrier Joanna Newsom which is quite the compliment coming from me. As the heavy distorted fog starts to roll over the song and you can barely hear her straining in the background it brings the thematic intensity of the song to a head. I can't get enough of this track over the past few days I think it's spectacular.
This was a collaboration I didn't expect but one that I'm ultimately glad we got. While it isn't my favorite thing either of these bands have done, it's an interesting and unique diatribe that was well worth exploring for its highlights. If you like experimental folk music, cult music or just have an ear for interesting soundplay I'm comfortable recommending it and I think that most any experimental music fans will find at least something to like. 6.5/10
I like this cover for its playfulness and use of color but a few things about it throw me off. It looks like a collage piece and that draws your eye into it differently than other covers that are out right now. I dislike the slightly off center composition it has. The patterns are so fun and lively but the text seems to structured for being "handwritten". Overall it's a very cool cover idea. 6.5/10
For more experimental music check out my review of Low's HEY WHAT here
