Having caught some very polite flak from Mike at Troubleman Unlimited over my last review, from which some people inferred that I claimed his label lacked a diverse sound, I decided that I would highlight the label's variety in my next review of a TMU disc. The Six Parts Seven makes my goal easy-- it handily shatters every preconceived notion I had about the label's roster. It's about as far away from a Harriet the Spy-style blistering hardcore attack as is humanly possible.
About the only thing shared by the Six Parts Seven and their labelmates is their locale. This Kent, Ohio-based quartet has been making mature, shimmering, instrumental post-rock for over six years now. And e-bow, viola, guitar, lapsteel and percussion are mixed gently and equally on Silence Magnifies Sound, their second full-length. Very reminiscent of their debut, 1999's In Lines and Patterns (released on Donut Friends), nothing new or different is on the menu here. It's more of the same: silky smooth, clean, ringing tones of twin guitars create the atmospheric conditions that allow for evocative touches by the e-bow and viola.
At its worst, Silence Magnifies Sound flirts dangerously with Windham Hill new age, like a weathered Michael Hedges. At its best, it's exploratory, ambient rock with an art-school panache. More a suite divided into nine parts than a traditional album with nine different tracks, the album is clearly jazz-like in its modus operandi: choose one musical phrase, flesh it out, develop it and watch it metamorphose. Let it drive the piece. Each song highlights a single theme and kneads it repetitiously with slight variations that cumulatively build.
The standouts come when the rhythm picks up somewhat, such as on the looping, and moderately peppy "The Day After the Day After Here" or the mid-paced, melodic "The Constant Variables." Though the somnambulist nine minute closer, "Changing the Name of October," seems to end long before you're ready for it to be over. It starts slow and builds to, well... slowness, but it's the song's intricacies that save it from neverending mediocrity.
Silence Magnifies Sound is a perfect backdrop for a refined, sophisticated experience like a museum tour or an art exhibition. But for those other times in your life, when you happen to be outside of such a cultural institution, you'd damn well better be in the mood before popping this one in the player. Because, you see, if you aren't in the exact frame of mind needed to appreciate music like the Six Parts Seven create, Silence Magnifies Sound will put you there. Whether you like it or not.
