Sightings - "Through the Panama"

Sightings - Through the Panama (Load 2007)

Sightings - Through the Panama / Load

What's interesting about music is how disorienting it can be to your senses. Some groups play music that sounds "happy" or upbeat or great to dance to or exuberant when the subject matter may be the complete opposite. It may be about death or loss or fear or impending doom. But sometimes musicians are disorienting for the exact opposite reason: They disorient your senses simply by loading them to the brim and letting you figure out the mess in their wake.

Sightings are emphatically in the latter. This is an album that has had a strange vibe surrounding it since its announcement that former indie punchline (ironic?) Andrew W.K. was going to produce it. For those who haven't been partying hearty from the beginning, or for those who just have short-term memories, Andrew was initially involved with Michigan's noise scene and hung down with the dudes in Wolf Eyes, for example. Load are a staple noise and loud rock label: Without the Providence-based label, we wouldn't have had such excellent releases from Noxagt or Arab on Radar or the (un)holy Lightning Bolt and all its affiliates.

So even without Sightings, the promise of a superbly produced, reliable record was there. Adding in the New York trio was just the icing on the cake. Guitarist Mark Morgan, bassist Richard Hoffman and drummer Jon Lockie are no newcomers to the art of noise, of course. Through the Panama represents their sixth full-length effort since 2002. The evolution has been a primordial burble, but this album is without a doubt their most harrowing.

One of the reasons it goes beyond mere noise-rock or obnoxious feedback with the knob on eleven is that the group is incorporating even more no-wave influences. Through the Panama is creepy, no two ways about it. But it's also got some of the most interesting, luminous, raw moments the band has ever had. "Certificate of No Effect" is a great example. Here is what They Were Wrong, So We Drowned-era Liars had, except with less reliance on their knowledge of the whole dance-punk thing. Sightings care nothing for the dancefloor. The beat that emerges here crawls out of the jungle and viciously attacks the boat as local tribes beat "Temple of Doom"-like drums. It's a furious pace and probably the most aggressive song on the record.

But as if to signify your mercy at the behest of the band, it stops without any warning. In its place, the title-track broods in the jungle, two shrieks unleashing the primal rage so abundant in Sightings' music. It's a veritable goldmine of terror, and I won't be the first to point out that its release so close to Halloween will make for some very terrified children. If you're looking to be your neighborhood's Boo Radley this year, Sightings is your soundtrack.

Fake Jazz's Adam Strohm mentioned in his 2002 review of the self-titled debut that the group was "two parts brawn and one part brain" (By the way, if you've never been there, Fake Jazz has some incredible reviews worth perusing from 2000-04). I think that's still true, but the production on this record has allowed the brain third of things to show itself more, rather than just hinting at what we assume as a listener is already there. Instead of a dense blast of cacophony, "A Rest" is a distorted cruise through the Canal that allows room for more than just a wall of sound; equally "Black Peter" could almost pass as a single. If you were on enough drugs (or hopped on enough Fun Sized Butterfingers), you could probably find a way to dance to it. That's not the standard for what makes for good music, of course, but it shows how much more thought the group put into this album than their earliest works.

Like Wolf Eyes three years ago and Sunburned Hand of the Man now, Sightings have the opportunity to exploit a unique gap in the typical indie consumers' tastes. Everything about this record is in place, and all kids have to do now is go out and buy it (or at least get out and go see them). Who knows what will become of it all, but Through the Panama has at least proven that Sightings aren't standing around waiting to see the result. Thankfully, they still have the drive to move forward. I haven't been this excited about Halloween in years.