MUSIC REVIEWS

Reviews of our self-titled cassette.

Posted at Foxy Digitalis on September 19, 2007:

Oklahoman celestial navigators Anvil Salute deliver three stunning, lengthy tracks on this sleek little cassette. Recorded live in an art gallery in Norman, OK – the group’s hometown – the music feels unconstrained and relaxed. This is most apparent on “Ghosts of Forgotten Winters,” which encompasses the whole of side one. Amorphous drone, bells and percussion unite and become a transfixing aura overtop of which K. Ahmadi’s saxophone drifts insouciantly. The energy picks up slightly near the middle of the song with some aggressive stabs from the drum kit and forceful bleats from the sax, but the meditative quality of the music remains undisturbed. Anvil Salute’s rapturous, folksy qualities have receded slightly on this release, allowing a graceful subtlety to be brought to the foreground.

On the second side, “Pattern Recognition” and “Body Becomes its Own Horizon” seem to be melted together into one long, luscious, dreamtime symphony. An easygoing rhythm slowly gathers momentum, serving as a backdrop overtop of which the saxophone groans, wails and shrieks. This cassette stands alongside the rest of the Anvil Salute catalogue, revealing these self-effacing minstrels as masters of atmosphere and purveyors of genre-defying hypnogogic hymns.

Posted at Animal Psi on May 1, 2007 along with a review of New Crusaders:

During a recent comp review, I complained that the several wonderful contributions I had heard by Anvil Salute on assorted splits, etc. left me hungry by the Oklahoma band’s frustratingly sparse catalog. Soon after, I received a note from collective regular Gabe Wingfield protesting au contraire, mon frère - presenting in a timely manner these two recent releases as evidence that the band is alive, well, and sufficiently prolific. (The players for both of these recordings include Wingfield alongside the terse, quietly-coed roster of T. Fagin, B. Fielder, K. Stevens, J. Butler, and R. Loftiss, with K. Ahmadi pulling partial duty.) While I acknowledge and then retract my hasty characterization of the band as lazy, I stand by my claim that their release schedule could stand an infusion. As I shall argue, they come correct with a rivalrous force refusing to wane, and thus are robbing us of ungifted treasures.

First see the band’s self-titled cassette for Nerd Party Records, a March 2006 recording released at the very end of the year: three tracks/two long sides of worldly psych jazz sounding like little guys Tent City and long-time champions Sun City Girls, No Neck Blues Band, and The Lost Domain. A-side “Ghosts of Forgotten Winters” is a tremendously serious piece (Alex be not the Winters in question), dark and moody, moving from the drone, hoots and birdcalls of various reeds, winds, and vocalizations, to filling what feels to be 20 minutes of roiling percussion, chiming, shimmering gamelan, motoric brass and a cool, casual saxophone lead. Boxhead Ensemble would be on the nose. From my first encounter with Anvil Salute, the track previously appeared as the band’s contribution to the Digitalis ‘Wailing Bones’ series. Side B offers two slightly shorter pieces beginning with “Pattern Recognition”, a gypsy trance of repeating guitar and percussion response; hand-drumming, guitar leads, and brightening flourishes of saxophone are soon carried off with a trampy marching-beat like a vaguer, more practiced ‘& Yet & Yet’, the tune nearly blinking out before turning into “Body Becomes Its Own Horizon” where the band raves their way up toward Jackie O Motherfucker on ‘Change’ or ‘Magick Fire Music’ (hey! is this a cover? this riffage and the subsequent jamming sounds awfully familiar). Incredible. The time disparity between sides makes for a sizeable lead-out, and it seems the tape is mastered a tad low - but these are sole points of contention, and as a long as you aren’t listening on the freeway and yr winders work, moot points. Dot-matrix labels on clear tapes, ink-jet inserts. What a great (t)ape!