Album Review: Drum and Bell Tower - "Out of the Time"

Note to fans of da blog: Sorry it's been so long between posts. School got busy and I've been listening to way too much house music as of late. That said, my friend Sam sent me this new album from Drum and Bell Tower. He's playing a show in Vancouver on March 21st at the Wise Hall. Here's my review.

Like Sam Tudor, Brent Morton (the man behind the moniker Drum and Bell Tower), is based in Williams Lake, a relatively isolated outpost in Northern BC teeming with musical talent. The nature of this northern town seems to leak its way into many its artists; there's a sense of expansion and desolation hidden within the sound of artists such as Brent, or Sam, or even punk bands like Rebel Spell. Drum and Bell tower is tone sensitive, lyrically driven early Radiohead rock mixed with strange electronic elements and breakdowns a la Kitchener's Decomposure (see the opener of the album). Drum and Bell Tower sound like you've heard them all your life, but you've never heard them before.

The first thing that strikes me about Out of the Time is how sonically cohesive it is as a whole. Many of the songs have similar guitar riffs and the vocal delivery remains even and paced for many of the songs, especially towards the end of the album. This similar soundscape gives a great continuity to the album, although sometimes by track six or seven I'm just begging for a track to break up the flow and truly surprise me with a new vibe or energy. A song like "Stitches" achieves this well, with a creepy and haunting drum intro and vocals done by Sam Tudor, sounding like a young James Mercer.

While many of the songs sound eerily similar, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The guitar tones are absolutely pitch perfect. Warm and round, but still edgy, these tones define the sound of the album, so I can't fault Brent for keeping a similar tone throughout the album. When the full band kicks in behind these gorgeous guitars, Drum and Bell Tower presents a serious sonic force. The best example of this, and my favourite song from the album, is "Song for a Teenage Girl." It begins with a heavy driving beat and careful guitar riffage. The vocals are pleading, and express level of warning. For a writer that has typically focused on large, political issues in the past, the lyrical basis of this track is very personal, telling of the pain of letting go of someone you love. The sentiment in the lines "take the pain and travel on" are matched perfectly by the desperate vocal delivery. The band follows along with the vocals, with an excellent bass riff and bass focused drums. It's a great track.

Overall, Out of the Time is an album of small, but deep impressions. It's that cool bass riff at 1:40 of "Song 0," or a particularly insightful lyric, or even just an emotion evoked. Like bands such as War on Drugs or Phosphorescent, Drum and Bell Tower does not focus on individual songs, rather on the album as a singular emotional unit, portraying a certain feeling. Like Lost in the Dream, Drum and Bell Tower takes me Out of the Time and into the woods of William Lake, BC.


Drum and Bell Tower play Wise Hall March 21st in Vancouver. To check out more tour dates, and to stream the entire album, head over to http://www.drumandbelltower.org/