Venice Is Sinking – AZAR

Portuguese readers might look at the title of the second album from Venice Is Sinking and think, “ah, bad luck”. As a translation, that’s what it means, though the band say they took the name from a liquor store seen on the cover of the follow-up to 2006’s Sorry About the Flowers. All the same, they have had an awful lot of AZAR to contend with, and may have often contemplated a visit to that store to drown their sorrows. They have spent the past three years overcoming issues of confidence, months of recording, personal issues and the loss of a bass-player along the way. But good things are often worth fighting for, right? Tribulation, after all, is often good for the art of appreciation. Draining the band’s coffers dry, the result is an album recorded in a deliciously old fashioned manner, almost entirely on tape. Under the guidance of Scott Solter, known for his work with The Mountain Goats, the songs here are clean and spacious, the album broken into sonic chunks by matching instrumental pieces. Rather than splitting up the more conventional tracks, it has the reverse effect, somehow melting everything together into a cohesive whole. They act as butter in a sandwich rather than bread, sliding you into the next duo of songs, instead of filling you up and leaving proceedings stodgy. 'Azar Three' in particular is a case in point, a wonderfully itchy, psychotic backing covered with gentle chimes and a low, sonic throb, in equal parts settling and disturbing.The songs themselves are like little buckets of melody perched precariously on wobbly doorframes, always managing to fall over you when you least expect it. 'Ryan’s Song' glides on its simple guitar patterns and double-handed vocals, the concluding strings full of passion against the fidgety rhythms. It slips straight into 'Okay', 'Azar Two' then leading you into the next partition of songs. 'Wetlands Dancehall' and 'Young Master Sunshine' are slower, but no less interesting, the latter full of deep, sonorous horns and viola.The next duo of songs are the best on the album, in particular 'Iron Range', a deft arrangement of treated guitar, building keyboards, a fresh, less fuzzy Spiritualised. It ends in a similar vein, with the captivating 'Charm City', horns and tinkling percussion containing the layered vocals. As a song it manages to sonically hold together all the themes of the album, reprising the instrumental moments with grace and skill. If you were entranced by M83 last year, and wish for something equally vital and spring-like, then would do well to give this release a try. The effort, the heartache, the ‘azar’ Venice Is Sinking went through to record this, it was all worth it. And then some. 84%Venice is Sinking on MySpace