This isn’t Joseph Volmer’s first go-round with Solid Melts as Clearing, and if we all behave and not do anything stupid in the near future, it might not be his last. In fact, Clearing has quite the Bandcamp assortment to choose from, so to suggest that Volmer’s got a little more up his sleeve probably isn’t that much of a stretch. We can all pin our hopes and dreams to future Clearing releases without much risk.
But let’s focus on Point of View right now, because this thing just dropped at the end of July, the exact end to be precise, the thirty-first, which, according to my research, checks out. (“Thirty days have September…”) And we all know what we want bumping from our stereos in the midsummer heat, right? That’s right, delicate and moody ambient! OK, so I’m not like you, tailgating at your Warped Tours and your Bonneroos while you wait for Yellowcard to take the stage – I need some relief from the sweaty masses, and Clearing’s bringing the (incredibly quiet and introspective) noise.
Speaking of introspection, Volmer knows how to let philosophical ideas simply hang in the air, hard concepts that you immediately have a reaction to, whether you intend to or not. He titles his tracks with generalities, buzzwords that have you careening off down whatever path your own personal mind decides to follow. Tracks like “burn,” “choices,” “point of view,” and “divide,” all lowercase starting points, can mean anything to anyone. For me, I begin to think of “burning” relational bridges, “choosing” to embark on a new endeavor, revising my “point of view” to embrace a broader worldview, and “dividing” like a cellular organism from my former life.
Wow – that’s pretty heavy stuff to think about. But it’s all pensively optimistic, because change for the better can be really, really good!
Now I gotta figure out how to change that “pensive optimism” to something a little more “unbridled.” Well, shoot, I guess I’ll just start by listening to Point of View a few dozen more times and see where that takes me.
More about: Clearing
