Green Inferno, Kranky's first release of 2005, begins with softly chirping birds, before erupting into a swelling violin drone that cuts out for more bird sounds at the track's closing. The next track hums and swells as vocals and acoustic guitar glisten without rising from under the mix. These first two tracks bear a strong resemblance to fellow sound-collagists Animal Collective, and it doesn't stop there. In fact, even the band name sounds like something one of the Animal Collective members might assign to a given side-project. While sole Bird Show member Ben Vida has doing his thing for a good number years now with elegiac drone artists Town & Country, I can't help but suspect that he's doing his take the whole forest-glitch-drift approach to sound collage. Nonetheless, Green Inferno does not fail to intrigue. Its tracks display both a patience and reserve that pay off once you acquire and maintain some patience of your own. It's the kind of music that, while it doesn't necessarily stay with you once you've finished listening to it, might intrigue you enough to stop whatever else you're doing and just follow the slow twists and turns. There is a density to these songs that will make you want to believe in ghosts again. Underneath the sonic tapestry is a solid bed of field recordings, some by Vida's friend in Puerto Rico, and some by one from Japan. I only mention this because, like me, I know a lot of you need a little more context to be able to assimilate the amorphous movement of recordings like these. An uninformed listen could lead to some preemptively damning conclusions about the music. Perhaps this isn't a remarkable experimental release, but it contains more intrinsically fascinating details than any Town & Country I've ever heard. Green Inferno is yet more ideal zoning-out music for when you just want to stop the crude machinations of life in their tracks and drift into a state of wonder.
1. All Afternoon Part #1
2. Kind Light - Green Inferno
3. Always/Never Sleep Part #1
4. Always/Never Sleep Part #2
5. Tracers - Morning/Evening
6. Landlovers
7. All Afternoon Pt #2 (Dawn of the Dead)