A friend of mine manages a coffeeshop in Arlington, Virginia. About a month before I ever heard The Six Parts Seven's latest LP, the band played a rock and roll show there, opening for Denison Witmer. "They were good kids, I liked their music" she would later comment, "but they need a singer."
Although not exactly among the indie-cognoscenti, I took my friend's comment as a critique of post-rock more generally. The genre has seemingly become the catch-all term to describe rock without words (excepting, of course, bands like Gastr del Sol). But when one pigeonholing buzz word manages to rope both Don Caballero and Sam Prekop, its descriptive utility is obviously suspect. Avoiding a general critique of post-rock, though, allow me simply to pare it down a bit: The Six Parts Seven play delicate, subdued post-rock a la Rachel's or the Album Leaf. There-- is that better?
Unlike many who have traveled the same course, The Six Parts Seven avoid the dreaded curse of droning boredom, executing their craft with a surprising and beautiful depth. Compositions are generally guitar-based, formed from simple hooks and patterns repeated hypnotically. On most tracks, the guitar hooks manage to sidestep at some point, allowing for variation in a bridge or interlude, or perhaps reprieve with a piano melody (as on "Sleeping Diagonally" and"Where Are the Timpani Heartbeats?"). The guitar driving the melody is accompanied by a second axe playing background counterpoint. The band also makes tasteful use of samples, as on "Spaces Between Days (Part 4)," where something that sounds like a bagpipe in reverse occupies the guitar's usual drone, repeating the same six-note patterns throughout.
The compositions on Things Shaped in Passing are uniformly tender, reflective, and soothing-- the sort of record to soundtrack a Sunday slumber, or induce the same. There's something very personal about the music, something evocative in the simplicity that invites closeness. It's really quite stunning.
Yet, although the parts are strong, the album as a whole still comes up somewhat short since each track approximates the tempo and mood of its immediate predecessor. It's as if The Six Parts Seven decided to write an absolutely perfect song for one occasion, then recorded slight variations on its theme eight times. As a result, I'd recommend you either take Things Shaped in Passing in small bites, or listen for a few tracks and let it dissolve into the background. Still, I'll contend that they do just fine without a singer, and that they've managed to create a pretty solid outing considering the current post-post-rock climate of independent music.
