school of seven bells: disconnect from desire

With their 2008 debut Alpinisms proving to be a steady, word-of-mouth seller, the popularity of Brooklyn-based trio School Of Seven Bells has already far outstripped that of Alejandra and Claudia Deheza’s former stint in On!Air!Library! and, with this second album, may see them eclipse even the David Bowie-endorsed Secret Machines, from which guitarist Benjamin Curtis graduated. Disconnect From Desire takes its title from Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s ‘Oblique Strategies’, a pack of cards with aphorisms or “worthwhile dilemmas” designed to help stimulate the creative process. With this in mind, the whole record has an air of emotional detachment in spite of production values even more lush than on their debut.

The relatively hook-laden opener ‘Windstorm’ takes shape with a layered howl of electronics and the sweet twin vocals of the Deheza sisters, setting the tone for the rest of the record. There is a grand strain of 1980s pop production lurking under the sheen of ethereal shoegaze drone and choral breathiness; ghosts of the Cocteau Twins and early Lush abound so emphatically you can almost see the 4AD album sleeves. The oblique lyrics seem to point to something deeper, but whether to mystical wisdom or to unstructured nonsense in an emotional void, it’s difficult to discern.

Overcoming substance with style, what was enigmatic and tribal on Alpinisms becomes more expansive but less cohesive here. Like one of those people who talks about being “spiritual” without wanting to commit to being religious, this mysticism often seems like a veil for a lack of original ideas. When this doesn’t distract – see the electronic textures and New Order-ish bassline of ‘Dust Devil’, the dense but delicate ‘Joviann’ – it works, but when the 1980s electronic echoes start to override it all comes to pieces.

[Full Time Hobby; July 12, 2010]

Written by: Lucy Brouwer

Tags: disconnect from desire, school of seven bells

This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under albums & EPs, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.