It’s another Bandcamp Friday today, and the electronic ether is flooded with new possibilities. I have dozens of recommendations I could make, in addition to the dozens my colleagues and I have been making every day since the last one of these Fridays. But the one I decided to pick out from the virtual deluge is here because… it takes me back….
In looking through our many past writings about Pelican, I found the first appearance in a list posted by one of the two other people who started NCS with me more than 14 years ago, a list posted just two weeks after we began (with no idea where we would go or for how long). And of course that wasn’t the last time we highlighted Pelican‘s music — many more features followed.
Even 14+ years ago, Pelican weren’t newcomers. Just a few weeks before that list I mentioned, they had released their fourth album, What We All Come to Need. Since then, two more albums have followed, and a few EPs, but the pace of the releases hasn’t been as intense as it once was.
That’s not shocking, given that the life of the band is now about 23 years, and the slower pace of output just makes the appearance of something new even more welcome. The new thing we have now, as of today, is a two-song EP named Adrift/Tending the Embers, and although nostalgia has admittedly played a role in why I decided to help spread the word about it, that’s not the only reason.
photo by Mike Boyd
Another reason is that these two new songs are the first ones written with the band’s original lineup since 2012, and of course the first new music of any kind (I’m pretty sure) since Pelican‘s Nighttime Stories album in 2019 (if you don’t count their covers EP last year).
Even more important, of course, the two new songs are very good.
Those of our visitors who are disappointed if they don’t find music here that leaves their ears bleeding will likely be disappointed by “Adrift” and “Tending the Embers“. As the band have themselves admitted, both songs are even less “caustic” and “bombastic” than the music on Nighttime Stories. But these are relative comparisons, because both songs will still leave you bruised, with some nerves left raw and others tingling in a combination of fear and intrigue.
Lest you think Pelican‘s music has turned dreamy, the dissonant needling riff that launches “Adrift” will banish any such thoughts, along with the clobbering drumwork and lead-weighted bass lines. The guitars continue to wail and claw in ringing yet scratchy tones, creating an even deeper mood of confusion bordering on despair, and skittering fretwork adds to the music’s mounting feverishness.
And then the song crashes and heavily heaves as the drums rumble like an avalanche. Uneasy mewling tones still emerge and the notes seem to moan, but — no surprise here — the song also proves to be a big head-mover.
So no, “Adrift” is not dreamy, and “Tending the Embers” isn’t either, though it does have its own mesmerizing qualities. To be sure, it’s built around skull-snapping and body-moving grooves, including flurries of mighty hammer blows, and it includes its own fair share of nerve-abrading guitar work, but it also unspools big slithering sounds in the low end and scarred but chime-like tones high above, which both at the beginning and at the end seem to start shining like stars — stars slowly falling all around.
Adrift/Tending the Embers was written and performed by:
Bryan Herweg
Larry Herweg
Laurent Schroeder-Lebec
Trevor Shelley de Brauw
The EP was recorded at Jamdek and mixed at Hypercube by Sanford Parker, and it was mastered at Boiler Room by Collin Jordan. It features artwork and layout by Christian Degn. It’s available from the band on limited-edition cassette tape and digital formats.
P.S. Pelican have said that they have an album’s worth of material taking shape, so it’s worth hoping for a new album before the year is out.
LISTEN/DOWNLOAD:
https://fanlink.to/PelicanAdrift
https://pelican.bandcamp.com/album/adrift-tending-the-embers
MORE PELICAN:
http://pelicansong.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pelicansong/
https://www.instagram.com/pelicansong/