Red Eskimo, The Grey Death Billow

Posted on 27th Aug 09 by Peter McKenna | 0

It is difficult to know what exactly to say about Red Eskimo’s The Grey Death Billow. On the one hand, it is a record that will not make any great impact. It is too limited, too constructed, and too much of an attempt to create a certain type of genre record. On the other, the musicians involved, namely, Neil Delaney, Peter Delaney and Robert Carey seem to know what they’re doing, and therefore, probably don’t give a toss about what “impact” the record makes.

Red Eskimo, The Grey Death Billow

It seems that Red Eskimo have something which most aspiring musicians don’t – a bit of humility, and are interested in making music simply for the hell of it. Indeed The Grey Death Billow is a cottage industry album. The band contributed all the art work for the album sleeve and didn’t do a bad job of it, and where bands normally name the studio where the recording took place, they have written, ‘Recorded in a small room at Peter and Marion’s place’. For numerous reasons, this is, most refreshing.

Red Eskimo are a band with a sound, this is undeniable. There are, however, two problems with the strenght of their sound. Firstly, it leaves little room for versatility, something which is highly important if musicians don’t want to bore their listeners to death, and secondly, listening to this record, that little critic who lives in your stereo, starts up shouting Red Neck Manifesto, Red Neck Manifesto, Red Neck Manifesto and occasionally muttering Damien Jurado, Connect Four Orchestra and Sigur Ros.

It is hard to understand exactly how they did it, but Red Eskimo have produced an album that could have been extraordinarily boring, and yet their songs manage to hold the listener’s attention right through until the end

Despite this tinny minimalism, which is being a bit over done, Red Eskimo have talent and are able to produce some excellent melodies, tightly written songs and very interesting lyrics. In fact, the lyricism is one of the better points on The Grey Death Billow. The lyrics are subtle, expressive and at times very clever.The subject material swings back and forth between post-adolescence turmoil, the break down of relationships and a commentary on current events. Ghost in the Machine and Grace both reference religion. A line from Ghost in the Machine, ‘TV Jesus, prophets deceive us, people turn to dirt’ is one of the more memorable on the record and the Grace spoken of is not some young one but rather a force in the world: ‘The towers explode, with people below/ The stars they hang low, the to and the fro/ Her infamy grows, wherever she roams.’ Headlights seems to reference the United States (‘these starry boots are made for walking’) and grapples with the incomprehensibility of non-Americans at American actions and that irritating, unwavering American self-belief: ‘You know why you do what you do now? Do I? Do I?’ The Smoking Jacket deals with post-adolescent anxiety and Like It, Leave It is lyrically excellent, addressing that exasperation and weariness that the end of a relationship often entails.

Musically, the album starts of strong, with the the not-over-done enthusiasm of You Know What You Want, but by the third track it begins to flag somewhat. Headlights, despite it’s Sigur Ros-like intro and clever guitar work fails to get the momentum going again. Like It, Leave It, the most energetic song on the album comes a bit too late to regain the initial flow. The last two tracks almost make up for the lack of versatility in sound. The Smoking Jacket is unexpected in that it is very much a ballad and In the Darkness is a strange folk hyrbird. However, even these songs retain that poignant flavour, that too distinctive signature, that pervades every track and so do not stand out.

This album, despite its lack of flair, despite the absence of any real originality, does have something about it. It is hard to understand exactly how they did it, but Red Eskimo have produced an album that could have been extraordinarily boring, and yet their songs manage to hold the listener’s attention right through until the end. If their next offering will be more loose, more open to diverse influences and more experimental with what they already have, then this group could put their catchy lyricism and solid songwriting abilities to better use.

Drop-d Rating: A stingy (on the critic’s part) 5.5/10.

Red Eskimo Myspace

Tags: Connect Four Orchestra, Damien Jurado, Neil Delaney, Peter Delaney, Red Eskimo, Red Neck Manifesto, Robert Carey, Sigur Ros, The Grey Death Billow