Review & Full Album Premiere: Breath, Primeval Transmissions (Remixed & Remastered)
[Click play above to stream Primeval Transmissions (Remixed & Remastered) by Breath. Album is out Friday on Desert Records.]
A do-over? Sort of. Based in Portland, Oregon, bassist/vocalist Steven O’Kelly (also some guitar) and drummer/percussionist Ian Caton released their debut album, Primeval Transmissions (discussed here) in Feb. 2021 through Desert Records, having recorded on March 20, 2020, tracking the five songs that make up the album live at Rob Wrong of Witch Mountain‘s Wrong Way Recording. In trying to think of what might have been the impetus for the two-piece to go back and have Wrong completely remix (and subsequently to have Justin Weis at Trackworx remaster) Primeval Transmissions, the prospect inherently carries some dismissal of the original edition of the record. Like, what was wrong with it the first time around?
Not much, the way I heard it. Basking in a meditative doom style heavily influenced by Al Cisneros and the first and second albums he and Chris Hakius did together as Om, the original Primeval Transmissions was certainly raw, but that was an essential facet of its sound. It’s right there in the title! As Breath‘s first release — not just their first full-length; their first anything — it left space open in the mix as if to allow the listener a place to put themselves within it, and despite its rawness, it still offered headphone-worthy atmospherics and a palpable sense of mood. This, fortunately, is something Primeval Transmissions (Remixed and Remastered) maintains.
At the same time, the changes in the mix are palpable as the sample of waves — could also be cars on a road, but waves are more soothing so that’s the assumption given the surrounding context — at the outset of opener “Evocation” is more forward, and the wah-bass jam
that moves into the second half before the crashout at 9:10 into the 14-minute “Dwarka,” which follows, feels more vibrant in much the same way the cover art by Tyler Wintermute has had its coloring enhanced, while remaining very much dedicated to earth-tones, but brighter and more vivid. The ethic would seem to apply across the entire 45-minute span.
Answering the inevitable question, the band has catalogued the changes and, for those who’d do a side-by-side, kept the original Primeval Transmissions — which they should maybe consider calling the “extra primeval version” or “original edition” or some such — available for listeners. Part of the explanation includes new equipment in Wrong‘s studio, which is fair enough. Wrong Way opened in late 2019, so that — as many producers do perpetually — Wrong would be bringing in different and upgraded gear over time makes sense.
This has allowed for digital versions in Dolby Atmos Surround and Apple Spatial Audio, neither of which I’ll pretend to understand beyond the assumption of higher audio resolution and richer frequency depth — they say that “anomalous noise” has been removed from the drum tracks as well, and sure enough they sound cleaner — which suits a piece like the rolling 12-minute “Battle for Harmonic Balance/Halls of Amenti,” the latter part of which also includes a new extra-bluesy guitar solo from Wrong where Caton‘s shaker percussion previously stood alone on a kind of hypnotic march into the closer “Evocation (Reprise).” Wrong also contributes a lead to centerpiece “Observer,” the jangle of his guitar surprising in its first strum at 2:27 into the song’s total 5:14 but (still) not unwelcome in complementing and filling out the trance rhythm carried over by O’Kelly and Caton.
But a new mix and a fancy hi-fi representation, and even the added solo, are just part of it. O’Kelly re-recorded vocals as well on “Evocation” and “Battle for Harmonic Balance/Halls of Amenti,” and that’s a stark change that enhances the listening experience overall, since as one might expect he’s more confident in his approach to the tracks some two-plus years after they were first put to tape. He’s somewhat less coated in echo as well, and his voice stands up to the forward position it’s now given, like he’s leading the meditation practice before his bass swells with distortion shortly before the six-minute mark, Caton‘s drums fluid and almost jazzy in their fills for the lead cut’s still-spacious crescendo.
The feeling of space — open space, particularly; not just the largesse of the bass tone or drum sounds — was crucial to Primeval Transmissions before and is too in the remix and remaster, which comes across as a purposeful decision. As enjoyable as high-volume listening is, part of the affect of Breath‘s material is its far-back sensibility, the feeling that the band are bringing their audience with them for this sojourn away from the mundane into ethereal not-quite-minimalism. And in comparing the redone vocal track on “Battle for Harmonic Balance/Halls of Amenti” to the earlier “Dwarka” — the two longest inclusions at 12 and 14 minutes, respectively — the change in sound isn’t so jarring as to remove one from the overarching flow of the material.
So perhaps not a do-over, but definitely an upgrade, making sure to keep what was working in sound, chemistry and ambience from the original while bolstering clarity and incorporating new ideas. The added guitar on “Battle for Harmonic Balance/Halls of Amenti” is smoother in its entry over the quiet stretch of shaker in the last two minutes of the song, a strummed layer that might be O’Kelly or might be Wrong backing himself on guitar behind the wistful psych-blues notes that emanate, creating a standout moment for side B in a space that was left open previously, making the turn into the back-t0-business bass and drums at the start of “Evocation (Reprise)” very much a re-grounding leading into the final instrumentalist procession outward; the cymbals brighter and more ceremonial in their impression circa 3:30 than they were, the bass that much warmer as the pair move toward the residual doppler noise that caps in mirror to the beginning of “Evocation” proper.
Ultimately, the revisit to (now somewhat less) Primeval Transmissions feels reasonable and rationalized given the changes that have been made, despite any kneejerk “why go back” reaction one might have on initial approach. It’s a fuller, more consuming sound, and one that comes across like a more complete realization of what Breath intended the record to be. To anybody who’d wonder why not move forward and make another record instead, I’ll point out that I have no idea the status of Breath‘s ‘next album’ or new material generally, and for all I know they could have songs in the works and ready to go; it doesn’t actually have to be one or the other, and more likely isn’t.
There are arguments to be made for the original’s barebones, live feel, but to be frank, that they sound better doesn’t hurt these songs, and in the redone vocals, the adjusted balance of the mix, the added guitar and the fine attention to detail throughout, Primeval Transmissions (Remixed and Remastered) still offers a sense of progression on the part of the band, and listeners who didn’t encounter it the first time around are given that much more depth to dig into as they travel along with Caton and O’Kelly (and Wrong) on this peripatetic exploration. Can’t really call it anything but a win.
Tags: Breath, Breath Primeval Transmissions, Desert Records, Oregon, Portland, Primeval Transmissions
