Saint Joan - Ice House

  by John Clarkson

published: 24 / 7 / 2002

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Review

First formed in 1999 under their original name of Solar Plexus, Saint Joan are a four-piece group from Nottingham, which is based around the song writing talents of vocalist and guitarist Ellen McGee. McGee writes her songs as simple folk songs, before bringing them to the rest of the band, Matt Harrison (Flute/Guitar/Keyboards), Christopher Dejous (Bass) and Matt Harris (Drums/Percussion), to augment and to develop into a darker post-rock sound. Saint Joan have played support dates to Cinerama and Birdie, and received glowing reviews in magazines such as Careless Talk Costs Lives and City Lights. The well regarded and long established fanzine Ptolemaic Terrascope, which very rarely reviews anything less than full-length albums, has also made an exception to the rule and has given 'The Ice House', the band's second single, an ecstatic review in its forthcoming September edition. On this occasion expectation, however, very much lives up to hype. The ethereal and nearly eight minute long 'The Ice House', from its first slow pounding wash of bass and drums, to its last flickering note of acoustic guitar, is never less than enthralling. Using Harrison's lilting flute and shimmering keyboards as the principal instruments, and written during a storm before being improvised in the studio, it hints at a great sorrow. McGee's poetic, deeply personal lyrics are kept deliberately enigmatic, never letting the listener know exactly what that tragedy is, but allow him or her enough scope to make up his or her own mind, and to draw his or her own conclusions. 'All Things Melt', the companion piece to 'The Ice House', takes this concept further. Running again to almost eight minutes in length, and equally melancholic in tone, the second track is more stripped down than the first track in its texture and tone. Harrison's warbling flute doesn't appear until nearly the end, and instead his fluttering acoustic guitar and Dejous' soft, rumbling bass are pushed to the fore. McGee meanwhile speaks rather than sings most of her lyrics "All things melt into music and sorrow" she hollers , bursting into song for the first time at gone five minutes in. One is never fully allowed to realise again what the mystery and the tragedy is. With such beautiful phrasing and words though as "the metronome falters for a while, and then resumes its usual pace, its steadfast manoeuvres and unavoidable certainty", or alternatively "the clock stopped at Half past Two in the afternoon while everything dissolved", the listener is, however again given that active push into letting his or her mind run riot. Perhaps inevitably, because of both their folk element and their melancholy, Saint Joan draw comparision with Belle and Sebastian and the Red House Painters, but equally so are reminiscent, with Harrison's evocative use of the flute, of the Delgados, and, McGee's forlorn aura of mysteriousness, of Hope Sandoval and Mazzy Star. 'The Ice House/All Things Melt' is easily one of the most rewarding and best records of the year. For what is only a second single, it is absolutely outstanding.

Track Listing:-

1 The Ice House,
2 All Things Melt