zhulin's Full Review: Found Winds the Walker by Spires That In The Sunse...
It was the purest accident that I discovered Spires That in the Sunset Rise during one of my increasingly rare browsings of Amazon. I was merely curious at first especially after being unable to find any information, but after a listen to the three available albums by the group I managed to find a copy of Four Winds the Walker in a specialist record shop in Bourke Street.
Although I had doubted the intensity of Spires That in the Sunset Rise from hearing samples, the reality is that for sharp passion and maximum emotion relative to effort put in virtually no band can match what Spires That in the Sunset Rise achieve throughout Four Winds the Walker. After a short instrumental opening track, the four women - Kathleen Baird, sisters Taralie and Tracy Peterson and Georgia Vallas - show their unique sound from the first note of the outstanding second track "Wide Awake". It is difficult to tell what really forms the base of Spires That in the Sunset Rise's sound because of the way in which the great variety of acoustic stringed instruments can carry parts of a tune without percussion accompaniment. Yet, when percussion accompaniment is present it manages to drive songs in a still-unique manner as if it were a proper rhythm section. The mysterious, truly rhythmic poetry may be hard to interpret but it fits the song excellently.
Third track "Little for a Lot" is quieter but its poetic beauty sounds a warning against the culture of materialism and its vocals have the touching beauty of the best folk music. The opening line played by Georgia on zither is worth a note too. Then there is "Sheye" a complex yet visceral acoustic piece in which the women's initial chorus is so spontaneous as to be incomprehensible, yet where the middle section is as touchingly beautiful as anything you will hear and even the softest and starkest parts are truly passionate. the incomprehensibility of the lyrics only makes them and their description of total personal loss sadder. "Sort Sands" changes the focus a little to cello and organ and the gentle pastoral poetry ("Through waves grains grow") still delivered in a creepy tone that makes one feel really deeply.
"Ong Song" is even darker in its tone with strange sound effects and the women emulating a chant in the opening vocal and moving to a simple choir for the amazingly simple chorus and "igh, ah, ya" line. "This Aint for Mama" is a satire of the classic children's hymn "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" has an epic, jam-like sound that never loses energy or the distinctive folk sound. the quivering bowed banjo is a remarkable sound, which Spires That in the Sunset Rise seem to have invented themselves because it sounds just so otherworldly. "Shining" is the most "conventional" song on Four Winds the Walker, but the twinkling zither and kalimba make it sound so different from anything one would expect even on noncommercial radio. The beautiful romantic lyrics show a quite different side of Spires That in the Sunset Rise from the "witchy" image often given to them, and this continues on "No Matter", whose beautiful lyrics are humble in the way the express the beauty of the natural world like no other song.
"Imaginary Skin" moves toward the visceral tone of "Sheye" with the occasional scream (Ey, Ey, Ey) being balanced perfectly by the simplest melody and a lyric that penetrates the mind of a demented mystic superbly. Taralie's simple cello is extraordinarily catchy, too, even when it momentarily appears to solo. "Serum" is very dark and eerily quiet: even the vocals are seldom singing yet they complement the music very well to create the sense of mystery that makes Four Winds the Walker so outstanding a record. "The May Ham" is a touchingly soft tale of survival after disaster that is at times more accessible than "Shining" (though most listeners would be very uncomfortable with the final banjo and lap slide duet), and "Born in a Room" has a wonderful variety of voices as it expresses the mysteries of affection. Four Winds the Walker is rounded off with a repeat of the opening track with some passionate vocals added.
Four Winds the Walker is a statement sufficient of itself to makes Spires That in the Sunset Rise one of the key bands of recent years. It is generally hard for mystical women singers to work together simply because what they do is so individual, but the four women of Spires That in the Sunset Rise manage this trick remarkably well because they commit themselves to a common goal so well and in the process not only produce some unique music but also tell with their poetry many truths of universal value. The way in which Spires That in the Sunset Rise all through Four Winds the Walker manage to make the most exotic instruments sound like genuine folk music instruments without sacrificing anything at all in texture makes for a quite unique sound. Moreover, all through the sound is stark to the point of being austere and this maximises the emotional impact to the point of being ecstatic on many songs.
Four Winds the Walker is certainly much too strange and unique for any mass appeal or even mass distribution, but as music it has few if any equals in recent years.
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