Tweet

Album Details

• Artist: Balmorhea
• Album: Rivers Arms
• Label: Western Vinyl
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2008-01-21

Depending on your mood at the time of listening to “Rivers Arms,” you will either find it uplifting and beautiful, or melancholy and sad. That is a good sign; Texas’ Balmorhea make emotionally loaded instrumental music, and their ability to hit a raw spot in the listener is their biggest asset. The key to the record is “San Solomon,” which leads off the set and returns at the end in a reprise. The only vocals on the entire disc are here, and they are brief moans and soaring “ahh”s that, again depending on your mood, offer hope or suggest you just give it up now. The rest of the record, especially “The Winter” and “Baleen Morning” straddle the line between drone and shoegazing, but the effect is never less that powerful and expressive. There is a lot of muted passion on “Rivers Arms,” and in the daring and open-hearted Balmorhea. Included on the disc is a short film about the making of the record, and is pretty good for straight studio session footage.

User Reviews and Comments

Log In or Register to Rate Albums