Haiku Salut find a rhythm on Etch and Etch Deep

But they hadn’t quite found a rhythm. In retrospect, Tricolore sounds, at times, amateurish and unfocused. They had all the witty, wordless charm of The Octopus Project and all the well-timed outbursts of emotional gravitas of Explosions In The Sky, but the instrumentation (lush and varied as it may have been) often fell behind the beat, seeming to shamble along extemporaneously without a clear sense of where, exactly, everything was headed. Whether this was a conscious choice or the result of a relatively newly formed band playing it by ear, those twelve tracks tended to fade to easily into the background; it was coffee shop music, meant to be heard, but not exactly listened to. The band’s second proper full-length, Etch and Etch Deep, on the other hand, demands attention in cinematic high-definition.

This is due in part, no doubt, to the growing experience and comfort of an unchanging lineup, but there’s something more subtle at work in this sophomore effort: each of the songs here feels a part of a larger piece, each track a movement within a miniature suite. There’s a refined focus, a sense of purpose reflected in everything from the subtle (and effective) incorporation of more electronic elements (what the band calls “loopery and laptopery”) and the loose sense of narrative that propels the album forward.

“Bleak and Beautiful (All Things)” is the opening theme and emotional tone setter, its glitchy opening giving way to sharply swerving piano arpeggios and a near-waltz of an interlude; in under four minutes, it manages to distill everything that makes Etch and Etch Deep the clearest expression of Haiku Salut’s vision yet, and its all-encompassing oxymoron of a title is no coincidence. “You Dance A Particular Algorithm” and “Hearts Not Parts” expand on the energy of the opener and the melancholic optimism that defines the album before giving way to the gentle lull of “Divided By Surfaces and Silence” and “Doing Better”.

The tension begins to build again on “Things Were Happening And They Were Strange”, its interlocking guitars flitting expertly around rolling drums. Accordion may not be the first instrument that comes to mind when imagining “drama”, but its return here signals a shift, and the band builds something like a war march from its ominous wheeze. If “Things Were Happening” is the march, “Becauselessness” is the aftermath of battle, its almost insectile buzzes and chirps providing a brief reprieve before the climactic trio of “Skip To The End”, “No-Colour” (its warbling synths that waver in and out of frame a particularly poignant reminder of all things bleak and beautiful), and “Foreign Pollen”.

If this all sounds a bit linear, as though Etch and Etch Deep moves like a standard plot, well, that’s because it does. There’s no film to accompany it, but that doesn’t mean Haiku Salut’s second album doesn’t make for a fantastic score, providing a subtle emotional guide as it moves from point A to point B and each stop along the way. Without the burden of visual or lyrical accompaniment, the listener is free to soundtrack whatever they desire. So, what does your movie look like?