(Cont)temporary discussion of A Maze and Amazement and post-rock

Lawson Fletcher writes:

“I think much of post-rock nowadays has shed the initial ambition and weight of the world of the earlier stuff, like it had to tear everything apart and rise only from a broken rubble, and has concentrated on using the same musical elements to make just shamelessly emotive and pretty music. (…) It’s like post-rock that has shed its ambition to thunderously document the apocalypse and turn inward once again, to explore emotional soundscapes. Still uses textured guitar, beaten, stalling drum-work, stretched out compositions, soft-textural vocals, spectral guitar timbres, etc. but it is to what these stylistic features are put in service of that is distinct, here.”

“Along these lines, A Maze and Amazement takes the atmospheric lessons learned and reverses the equation - the long tails and heady elements no longer thunderous signals of the social crumbling, but crimson internalisations of the personal, of thought and heart.”

Read Lawson’s full discussion on his (con)temporary blog…

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Silent Ballet review

I’m a big fan of the following review, written for the silent ballet by Zach Mills. More important to me than his praise is the way in which he discusses A Maze and Amazement’s shortcomings.

As a musician - as a human being, really - I have to be able to accept responsibility for my failures as willingly as I accept responsibility for that which I might succeed in. Ruthless critical self-examination, after all, is nothing short of a necessity for personal and artistic growth. Zach’s review helped me pinpoint a few things I will have to improve upon in the future - and you know what’s great? I’m really looking forward to it.

When did nostalgia become so damn beautiful? I’ve never really had patience with the emotion, myself – spending too much time thinking about illusory, idyllic visions of the past (that was never really better than the present, anyway) has always seemed like a waste of precious time. But after spending some precious time with the first full-length from New Zealand’s The Enright House, A Maze and Amazement, I can’t be so sure. All I know is that once you step into the hazy world of past and present, fact and fiction conjured by the quartet, it’s difficult to differentiate between reality and illusion, and that’s just the way it should be. Read the full review…

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More on Scattering the Sun Like Gunshot

Ok, I admit it: I have google alerts out on everything under the sun relating to the enright house. So, for better or for worse, that means I catch a reasonable percentage of online mentions - in this case of our video.

Since releasing the video to Scattering the Sun a few days ago, one thing has definately suprised me: a fair bit of the coverage (which, thus far, has been slow, but positive) has been coming not from New Zealand, not from the US, but instead from Germany.

Take for example this lovely write-up, translated from the German blog The Last Pop Song:

That New Zealand is a very beautiful country, is something we have known, at the very latest, since Lord of the Rings. That New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates, too, is known. Therefore, it’s quite likely that New Zealand ought to be harboring a lot of melancholy young people, as well. And that magnitude and eminence frequently stimulates musical sensitivity and the form of expression, is also a well-known fact since Sigur Ros, at the very latest. Ergo, it is not far fetched to assume that there must also exist some magnificent, melancholic music in New Zealand. (Man, are we logical today). And here it is: The Enright House play a wonderfully ethereal, elegiacal and electrifying Postrock that captured our romantic indie-heart in a storm. (…) The videos on the band’s website are of equal aesthetic magnitude. Absolutely recommended!

Most excitingly, a lot of this small wave of German blog coverage [i.e. Coast is Clear and Soundmag.de] was either directly brought on by the recommendation of one single person who liked our music enough to tell his friends, or by the simple snowball effect that his initial recommendations had.

See, for someone like myself, who has to do virtually everything by myself (writing music, recording, manufacture, design, website, social networking, internet promotion, organizing gigs, correspondance, finding musicians to help bring this music to life, and so on), the simplest help, the simplest gesture of support, can make my life as a musician so much more worthwhile.

It’s hard to explain, but when other human beings support something you have created, something you have invested your life in, it changes you. It makes me more humble, more joyous, and more motivated.

So, to everyone who has ever helped me and the band out: thank you. Your generous help is, and always be, humbly received and appreciated.

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NZ Musician review!

“Christchurch act The Enright House have been picked up by label arm A Low Hum, and with this debut have produced a beautifully crafted, sombre and atmospheric album. Melancholy pervades, the highlight for me being We Might As Well Have Stayed Young, an aching reflection on the passing of youth that those of a certain generation will no doubt relate to (”Listening to Skinny Puppy, we’d paint our ceilings black and tile our bathroom in mirror shards…”) - it’s become one of my favorite songs of the year.

The album is washed in lush arrangements; electronic elements mesh with drums, viola, piano, and guitars manipulated with bows, bottle caps and other assorted items. Instrumentals sit alongside the introspective lyrical contributions of Enright House founder Mark Roberts and the haunting poetry of Mary E. Jones. Light some candles, pour a glass of red wine and immerse yourself in this moody gem of an album.” • Renee Jones

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The Lumiere Reader: Enright House feature and review

The Lumiere Arts Reader has just published a massive review/feature on us and the new album, giving us 4 out of 5 stars! Here’s a short excerpt of what Brannavan Gnanalingam has to say:

A Maze and Amazement LP is a beautiful album, complex and dense, but highly accessible. It’s a languid dream, shifting between melancholy and uplift, heavy on mood and texture. In other words, it could probably be described under the term “post-rock”, but there is so much happening here, it’s a little too reductive to try and sum it up in a term or two.

All this has resulted in a rather shimmering piece of work. A Maze and Amazement LP could be accused of over-extending itself at times (and potentially use a little trimming at points), but it’s ambitious and gorgeous to listen to. While approaching his music from an intellectual angle, it’s also a stirring piece of work, that reveals more and more to you every listen. Unlike say, Godspeed! You Black Emperor which thunderously document an apocalypse, this is much more personal, much more insular. “I think music that has a lot of heart in it, a lot of thought in it, can be beautiful and simple and still leave enough complexity for people to discover. And discovery takes time.”

The whole article can be found online at the Lumiere Reader’s website, but be forewarned: the feature is absolutely epic in length (over 2000 words)! Don’t get me wrong, I actually think this is the most interesting interview I’ve ever done in terms of the actual discussion, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about the length… even my Mom is going to have a tough time getting through this one! :)

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