Singer Mariam Wallentin and drummer Andreas Werliin have already made their definitive, unique album (reviewed by W&H in The Spring of 2008). This follow-up exploits the considerable potential offered in that template. It is immediately recognisable as a continuation, and can be gradually appreciated as extending and enriching their repertoire.
So if you haven't already bought this, having admired the first set or enjoyed their thrilling live performance, I suggest you put things right as soon as the shops open.
Wallentin and Werliin are unashamed hedonists of sound. They have a direct erotic relationship with the rippling waves of breath, reverberation, timbre, dynamics and tone colour that pour out from the simplest of vocal and percussive instruments. The word sensational should be reserved for such music - the listeners senses are outrageously swamped and stimulated. When a track plays it isn't really possible to pay attention to anything else without losing, not just the plot, but the beginning middle and end as well. Closing your eyes and eidetically moving to forests, deserts, oceans, plains and mountain passes is unavoidable. Listening in the car or while operating heavy machinery is not recommended.
Opening track "Island" seduces with no more than Mariam Wallentin's vocal sounds,. But the next three songs "Chain of Steel", "So Soft So Pink" and "Places" chase off into those familiar WILDBIRDS & PEACEDRUMS places like a bus full of feral children, spilling their beans all over th place with sources from BJÖRK to BUFFY ST. MARIE.
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"Great Lines" is a good big song in its own right. Some others are slighter compositions - living more for the sonic thrills of each note and pulse. "Today/Tomorrow" is a walloping drum excursion for arm flailing and body spinning of all kinds.
"Who Ho Ho Ho" offers that glimpse of South East Asia noted on the fist album, with Werliin joining in on a vocal duet that has a continent of out-of-range sounds teasing the ear into manic guessing. Just what is that elephant doing at the bottom of the ravine?
"My Heart" is a jolly chirp of delightful steel drum sounds and seductive vocal pleading. "I'm lost without your rhythm" sings Wallentin (as if to Werliim). Werliim grins and trips on, shaking his head in delighted disagreement as he unfolds a delightful sequence of noises to match the sentiment. The final minute opens out into a big choir of Wallentin vocal lines.
I do like this recording.
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www.last.fm/music/Wildbirds+&+Peacedrums
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