Unwound From the Wood - Music A.M.

Unwound From the Wood

Music A.M.
Quatermass Records.


SCQ Rating: 76%

I’m a firm believer in buying albums for the whole package, not just a song here or there. Had my record collection been amassed under the belief that one song was worth the price of a record, it would be hideous. More over, I’d be broke and would’ve likely turned into a full-time downloader. So imagine my surprise when, in the summer of 2006, I stumbled across a song online that I was immediately willing to buy the entire record for, but couldn’t locate it anywhere. Fast-forward 18 months and one hundred or so disappointing close-calls, and I’m putting THE song, ‘Always’, onto my stereo for the first time. I know every word and it’s still among the best German electro-pop songs I’ve ever heard, but what of the other ten songs to follow this derogatory confession of restless love? The gamble is on.

‘I Was Born to Make You Happy’ sets a mid-tempo dance groove complete with programmed beats and keyboard, while ‘Say It’ features a similar lyrical approach of repeating one refrain over and over. While these tracks don’t have much to say, they compliment the instrumentals among them; especially the tense prog-rock jam session of ‘You Know Better Now…’, which abandons our ears to the untamed woods of Unwound’s cover art. Acting as place-holders, these instrumentals are hypnotic meditations, and successfully scattered between tracks featuring singer/novelist Luke Sutherland, balance his words with ambience.

‘Ten Ton Truck’ reiterates the band’s strength: the feather-light vocals and memorable lyrics of Sutherland. As with on ‘Always’, his near whisper turns every word into intimacy and makes for ideal listening on a quiet night. Unlike most cushy electronica, Unwound from the Wood feels very loose in execution, as if Schneider and Bertelmann were merely improvising their keyboard progressions and ambient swellings. However, it’s clear that Music A.M. have kept their collective eye on a particular sound, one that is entirely cohesive from beginning to end and remains sparse despite the occasional inclusion of trombone and live drums.

I find it surprising that there is so little chatter about this unassuming record online, not to mention how long it took for me to finally own it. Perhaps it’s because Music A.M. aren’t likely to present anything new to the current emo-tronic landscape that Germany has such an abundance of. And that’s what I find interesting about them; these songs are performed better than they were written, which suggests that if they ever sought to write more challenging compositions, they could certainly pull it off.

The gamble paid off. This is a unique hybrid of natural and electronic instrumentation that, like its title suggests, comes off as completely organic. Worth locating.

Listen to Music A.M. here.