Del Rey: These Post-Rockers that Come at You with Heavy Psychedelia
Posted in Reviews on September 10th, 2010 by JJ KoczanMore so even than their past work on albums like 2006’s A Pyramid for the Living and their rudimentary 2001 debut, Speak it Not Aloud (both albums through My Pal God Records), the At a Loss Recordings premiere for doubly-percussed Chicago quintet Del Rey, called Immemorial, is marked by its ambition. An expansive sound that contains elements of post-rock, psychedelia, driven riff-based rhythms, experimental noise and ambient soundscaping spreads out over Immemorial’s seven tracks, beginning with the fervent tom rumble of 11-plus-minute opener “Return of the Son of Fog Rider” and finding just as much force in the subdued delay guitar Americana of the brief “Innumeracy” and the atmospheric ringing tones of “Ouisch” (say it out loud). It is an offering as likely to hypnotize as it is to engage, and for that variety, all the richer a listening experience.
But though Del Rey present multiple components of their total sound in each song, Immemorial can still be understood in a structure of the long tracks being complemented by the short. The aforementioned “Innumeracy” bleeds into the 10:35 “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars” with an ease and grace that could only be on purpose, and the whispering synth line that concludes “Ouisch” is also that which begins the 9:39 “These Children that Come at You with Knives,” which gives way to the sort-of afterthought that is “Ancestral,” closing the album with nearly two-and-a-half minutes of hopeful guitar runs. It’s worth noting that in “Return of the Son of Fog Rider,” Immemorial gets a beginning that moves right from the start, and there is a kinetic energy through most of the longer tracks. I don’t know if I’d call it “heavy” in a heavy metal sense, but I’ll be damned if Del Rey’s instrumental explorations don’t carry a weight you can feel in each of your senses.