Static North - "Static North"

Static North - "More Life" (2007)

Static North – Static North / self-released

Know that feeling when you come home after a show, de-clothe your sweaty garments and hit your pillow with a wash of swimming drunken exhaustion? That odd moment of sheer placidity after finally laying down when the chaos of the night finally comes to a screeching halt. All of the evening’s festivities begin to play over in your head: the excited anticipation while prepping yourself with hipness before leaving the house; the ride to the venue with energized music probably turned up a bit too loud; the awkwardness of entering the show space with two main priorities: 1. find someone you know 2. get alcohol; finding your social groove as the alcohol begins to dismantle your guard; watching the bands perform as the over-modulated sound frequencies do permanent damage to your poor ears; the ridiculous and embarrassing conversation you have post-performance with the alcohol now holding your better judgment hostage; the inevitable ride home with music once again turned up too loud despite a more somber mood; and the final triumph of closing your abode’s door and turning the lock, another night enjoyed and conquered. Then, as you hit your bed in the momentary silence of the night, the pounding ring in your ears takes complete control of your immediate consciousness. No specific melody or harmony can be discerned, just washing staticy noise with a faint rhythmic echo that does battle with the throbbing of your head. It’s a feeling of slight regret and fatigue, which only exemplifies your confused drunken emotions and leaves just the desire to finally lose consciousness and sleep. Static North’s opening track – “Westbound” – on his self-titled, self-released debut sounds a lot like that.

Holed up in an undisclosed studio space in Toronto, Canada, Dave Gareth Lewis crafts the type of music that bridges sobering placid ambience with noisy drunken feedback. It exists somewhere between the carefully controlled harmonic feedback of My Bloody Valentine, the ambient exploiting sound collages of Tim Hecker, the precise rhythmic loop manipulations of Jan Jelinek, the slowly budding drone of Lichens and the introspective visually-enhanced post-rock of Godspeed You Black Emperor! For a debut, it is surprisingly realized; a motif is established and manipulated creating an overarching vibe without giving in to redundancy. Despite utilizing mostly feedback and other non-melodic sound sources, the albums remains musical and pleasant. And like all good records in this vein, listening to the non-narrative songs causes you to search within yourself for emotional associations. Lewis keeps it captivating without over-indulgence, a tough beam to balance.

As I mentioned earlier, the opening track “Westbound” is mostly cascading waves of feedback and the accidental harmonic responses to such, but Lewis also introduces his basic songwriting structure. Typically building vertically, each song begins with a loop, whether it’s the pleasant, westward gazing synthesizer chord progression of “Stubborn Tiny Lights” or the crunchy, Fennesz-approved minimalist throb of “Ours, That Night Got Away from Us”. He doesn’t waste much time layering as slight rhythmic devices – usually consisting of a buried kick drum or a simple bass line progression – ambient synthesizer swells and tenderly controlled guitar feedback swirl each track into a shimmering, pulsing orb of surprisingly melodic noise. As each song develops, the individual sound sources melt into each other creating accidental harmonies that Lewis cleverly expounds upon. Everything climaxes in a symphonic mess of layered frequency byproducts and unforeseen rhythmic throbs, and finally winded down as each filter is concurrently closed and all that’s left is the initial loop.

Static North may not be reinventing the wheel with his psychedelic shoegazing ambience, but having the hindsight of purveyors past, he knows just which characteristics to utilize. Melodrama is kept succinct by not letting the melodies outwork the static and feedback, and keeping each track under the seven-minute gate of over-indulgence. Guitars, bass, synthesizer and drum machine are obviously his tools of choice, but Lewis is studio-savvy enough to manipulate them into new, more curious sounds where exacting each particular source is near impossible. And most importantly, it has a large enough sonic ceiling not to sound like a bedroom-created record. In fact, he gives enough space for the harmonies to develop that it almost sounds live. Keep an eye to our northern Canadian neighbor because Static North is most likely a name we’ll be gushing about again in the near future.