Movietone - Sand And The Stars
by Chris Jones
published: 3 / 12 / 2003

Label:
Domino Records
Format: CD
intro
Subdued, relaxed rock from Bristol's Movietone, portions of which were written on a beach under the stars, whose quietness is its very power
Some of my favourite bands create music that I think is best described as "lazy".?This description has little to nothing to do with the music making process of the bands, but is in fact how listening to the music makes me feel. The previous two Movietone albums have had this effect on me and I've literally enjoyed listening to each of them over and over again instead of getting up and putting on another album when they've finished.?Their latest album continues this trend and that's perfectly fine with me.? ? According to the liner notes, portions of 'The Sand and the Stars' were actually written on a beach under the stars.?Listening to the album it's easy to imagine a small, warm fire on a desolate beach, a group of friends, and bottles of red wine.?The instrumentation is similar to the past two albums and once again the clarinet and cello do a great job of providing the sense of laziness.?Even on the more upbeat songs where trumpet and saxophone do a bit of a freakout, things remain relatively subdued.?While the tone could also be described as sombre, Movietone doesn't come off as sounding depressed.?Content and relaxed to the point of being apathetic maybe, but not depressed. ? The soothing, almost hypnotic quality of Kate Wright's voice wraps around you like a warm blanket that you don't want to crawl out from under.?And that's perfectly fine because there's nothing that needs to get done anyway.?The CD is on repeat and the songs just keep rolling in like waves gently breaking on a beach under the stars.? Getting up would only spoil the moment and the moment still has several more hours to go.
Track Listing:-
1 The Sand And The Stars2 Ocean Song
3 In Mexico
4 Pale Tracks
5 Let Night In
6 We Rode On
7 Snow Is Falling
8 Not Even Close
9 Red Earth
10 Beach Samba
11 Near Marconi's Hut
Label Links:-
http://www.dominorecordco.com/https://www.facebook.com/DominoRecordCo
https://twitter.com/DominoRecordCo
https://www.youtube.com/user/DominoRecords
https://plus.google.com/+DominoRecords
reviews |
The Blossom Filled Streets (2001) |
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The care put into the making of the album is obvious. Maybe there's a hippie-appeal to it but it's best described as tender, warm and humid, if the latter can be said of a gramophone record. "The Blo |
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