By John Michael Cassetta • Jun 3rd, 2008 • Category: Album Review, Music
After 12 years and 12(ish) albums, Centro-matic/South San Gabriel remain mainstays of Texas music. In that time they’ve found acceptance beyond the Lone Star State – namely SSG in Europe – but they’ve always been very much a “Texas” band, having danced the “Denton-Austin-Houston Three Step” thousands of times, and never having strayed far away from home for long. With such feelings of familiarity and community, listening to the new double-album, Dual Hawks, is a lot like heading over to the neighbor’s place to check out his new grill while he cooks a few juicy ‘gers.
The Centro-matic side is a return to the low-fi edge that has marked their sound on almost every album, except 2006’s Fort Recovery, a very polished but largely boring album. Familiar low-fi, overdriven guitars mark “Rat Patrol and DJs,” followed up with vocal harmonies and a lot of “ooh”-ing, classic Centro-matic, through-and-through. Immediately there is a return to the advances the band made on albums like Love You Just The Same, combining their knack for low-fi guitar rock with Johnson’s more consistently well-written songs.
Even songs like “Quality Strange” and “I, The Kite,” which are more calculated and precise as on Fort Recovery, feel original and hold up as some of the best tunes on the album. Like almost every Centro-matic album though, there is a certain amount of filler, especially in the back half of the album. “All You Farewells” has its moments, but for the most part feels lifeless and stagnant with crescendos that lead nowhere; “Counting the Scars” is stripped down to Johnson and an acoustic guitar, an interesting sound, but one I can’t help think would be more appropriate on one of his solo records rather than an otherwise upbeat Centro-matic one.
Immediately following is “Twenty Four”, easily the most enjoyable track on the album, if not quite the best all-around track, picking up the pace with handclaps, bright piano chords and Johnson’s longing vocals, “Well I never felt this way at twenty-four / With the fiends and ghouls and darkness at my door.” The Centro-matic half of Dual Hawks is resoundingly enjoyable and, even in its faults, is the sound of a band confidently holding strong with what they’ve done best for well over a decade.
|
The South San Gabriel half, which is entirely its own album, is evidence of how separate the bands function with respect both to this album and to the growth of the band as a whole. The Carlton Chronicles, the last release from SSG, was perhaps the single best album from anyone under the Centro-matic parent brand, concentrated on the conceptual story of a cat and honed in on a very specific slow and dark, but still moving and melodic sound. Now on Dual Hawks, much of that cohesiveness gives way to a more diverse collection of songs, for better or for worse.
The first two tracks, “Emma Jane” and “Kept On The Sly,” are as strong an opening as any; with the murky expressiveness of the first’s strings, and the dull, driving roar of the second, these two songs are some of South San Gabriel’s finest work from anywhere in their catalog. Moving forward, the album pioneers more open spaces with songs like “My Goodbyes,” which are wildly compelling when made interesting by the soft touch of backup vocals and odd found-sounds, but often times flirt dangerously close instrumental boredom through long sections of, well, not very much (see: all of “Corner Cross”). As always, South San Gabriel’s penchant for the long buildup has it’s payoffs, if you’re willing to wait.
“Trust to Lose” covers new ground with overdriven bass and fiddle parts being carried along by congas and deep acoustic guitars - more than any other song on the album, this one has grown on me (over the course of about 10 listens though). It’s refreshing to hear new material on each song, but the cohesiveness of The Carlton Chronicles was a step forward for the band, and a missing component in SSG’s Dual Hawks.
Dual Hawks is an embodiment of what both bands do best: Centro-matic consistently release solid rock albums with an raw low-fi edge while South San Gabriel experiment with sparse, riskier (though sometimes more rewarding) songs. A solid album on it’s own, Dual Hawks at the very least makes the eventual (and now probably quadruple-disc) Centro-matic “Greatist Hits” record that much longer.
Tunes:
South San Gabriel - “Trust To Lose”
Info:
Dual Hawks is out June 3rd on Misra
