Hey gang, let’s talk real for a minute here. I know you all like your music to have those guitars and basses and stuff, but did you know you can live a full and productive band life with nothing more than percussion instruments? Me neither! Until I popped in ensemble, et al.’s fancy new CD The Slow Reveal (Imaginator Records) that is. I got so excited by what I heard that I sawed this boat in half!
Though the action itself has nothing to do with this release, I was certainly inspired enough by it to murder the hell out of a boat. There were, in fact, three main reasons ensemble, et al. whipped this crotchety old Scrooge into such a tizzy.
1. Correct use of “et al.”: The period goes after the “al.” It’s not “et. al.,” et. al,” “et al,” or “e.t.a.l.,” like most morons tend to screw up. (I’m a punctuation enthusiast.)
2. John McEntire’s presence behind the boards: Never underestimate the power of J-Mac.
3. Great freakin’ tunes: Gosh this sounds Tortoise-y, but even better than recent Tortoise maybe? Light and airy yet simultaneously dense and complex. How do you do that with, again, only percussion instruments?
All these things totally surprised me to an uncontrollable point, and then I settled down, lamenting my only form of watercraft but buoyed in spirit by the sheer delight of ensemble, et al. Then I got riled up again, threw all my guitars into Lake Michigan, sawed my diving bell in half in sheer joy, then wound back down into a spiral of regret. That diving bell was expensive, as were all those guitars, none of which I can now use or retrieve. The only remedy? Replay The Slow Reveal. I can be an excitable fellow.