Monday 20 May 2013
Colour the night sky
While cellist Rebecca Foon leads Montreal-based collective Saltland, her instrument rarely is the centre of attention on the band’s initial offering, I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us. As a matter of fact, there’s no singular focal point to this immense, dense record; with each listen you will find yourself fixated by another element to the recording you didn’t notice the previous times.
It might be the sexy, synthetic percussion, the modern beats that breath life into opener “Golden Alley” that catches your attention the first time out. The next, you’ll find yourself lost in the horns and prog-rock drone of “I Thought It Was Us”.
Foon (a founding member of Esmerine, and former member of A Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flames), along with collaborator Jamie Thompson (of Unicorns and Esmerine) and producer Mark Lawson Arcade Fire) have crafted a record that swallows the listener whole. “Unholy” swirls with intensity, like a unsettling dream so vivid it startles you awake. The whole record exists as a dream, an ephemeral high lasting 38 minutes, that you will find yourself chasing time and again.
And there will always be a next time. I defy anyone who hears I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us to only listen the one time. It will be impossible to resist.
I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us is available now on Constellation.
Buy: Saltland, I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us
CBC Music: Saltland
Facebook: Saltland
Twitter: Saltland
If you’re going to name your band after an 80s WWF wrestling star, I suppose choosing Macho Man Randy Savage’s femme fatale manager 
