The demise of Playing Enemy was a tough pill for me to swallow as they were a band that I had followed for a number of years and always thought that they got better and better as their releases stacked up over time. Following the untimely end of that project Demian Johnston and Shane Mehling went on to do a duo project entitled Hemingway, and too bad for me, I missed all of their releases and never really heard too much from them outside of a couple of tracks with the awful sound quality that MySpace offers. Recently, the duo changed the name of that project to Great Falls and released this cassette demo with (wait for it) a digital download; this sold me on purchasing the cassette and anxiously awaited the sounds that would be coming my way.
The eight songs that Great Falls offers on their demo are a bit of a surprise, in one part because I was not expecting a demo of such length (more or less a full-length at more than thirty minutes running time) and for another part because I was not expecting the style or sound of the music from the band at all being noisy as all hell angular guitar music that is not a million miles away from the members' previous projects (Kiss it Goodbye and Playing Enemy specifically). The modus operandi or method of this duo seemingly includes creating a noisy atmosphere of sound with guitars and programmed drums and other assorted electronic gadgets while the wonderfully acerbic vocals make their stand against the sound; they alternate between faster tempo tracks and slower songs which offers a variety of sonic manipulation. The serpentine quality of the guitar in "Hundreds of Child Soldiers" establishes quite the strange groove (usually assisted or promoted by the drums but not so in this case) while Demian bellows over the thick din, while the slow marching pace of "Pareidolia" shows another side of the band that allows for the atmosphere to fill all of the aural space. Other highlights include the pounding rhythms and droning guitar noise of "The Bank Agnostic" and "Another Starving Excuse" with its mixing of the heavy noise and a bit softer melodic parts and the subtle menacing mood to be heard on "All Clean Necks."
It really is tough to believe how obsessively I began listening to the Great Falls demo as soon as it landed in my hands, maybe the obsession is due to the anticipation of waiting for the cassette to land in my hands, or maybe the obsession originates from the fact that so few bands continue making music like this anymore while still being made top notch (by people with a history within the style). In truth, this is a great release from two guys who consistently make quality aggressive and noise oriented music that is oddly gratifying and challenging at the same time; somehow Great Falls manages to make a enormously noisy racket that actually is rather soothing and definitely can affect a fuzzy feeling in one's head (kind of like numbness but that is such a poor description) while simultaneously being incredibly an infectious listening experience (many instant replay sessions occurred while listening to this). Great demo with nary a bad track to be found, now let's hear more because I am already dying to do so.
