MUSIC REVIEWS

Reviews of "This is the Voice of Doom Calling."

Posted at animalpsi.com on May 11:

The gang is back again with a long-player, ‘This is the Voice of Doom Calling’. Anvil Salute, here a sextet (weren’t they always?), playing an ample smattering of ten tracks in various shapes and sizes, while holding tight to their core repertoire of hazy, lazy Americana instrumentals: the 14 minute “Island of Genius”, with a reprise as the disc’s finale, picks along in a jubilant polyphony of warm, clean strings, trap, and bass reminiscent Valley of the Giants, growing in mass yet not speed, going nowhere by design. While by no means an unpleasant experience, the collection’s conventions work best in the smaller bits like the subsequent “Ira’s Unfinished Room”, a muffled chug-a-chug and jangle over choppy drumwork, familiar a vocal-less slo-core a la Bedhead, et al; “Rudimentary Alchemy” confirms the anxious joy of small differences, as the simple addition of pattering disco percussion livens the flashing bulbs of looped guitars and brassy curse of harmonica. The down-farm “Wat Arun” and caravan jangle of “Balkania” is the shaggiest the band goes on this one, with just a slight free-dissonance in the space between notes and gong strikes. The joyous 10 minutes of “My Former Life is No Longer Mine” synchronizes the widest assortment of timbres, from rich metal strings to seeded shakers to the whale-song of a some magical bowed jug, the loose dervish of the song rotates in broad, hypnotic sweeps. CDr comes labeled in a color card with heavy vinyl sleeve. Available for $10 from Deep Water Acres HERE.

Posted at Foxy Digitalis on March 11:

A new Anvil Salute record is like a visit from an old friend that you haven’t seen in awhile. Almost right away, good memories, familiar feelings and a general sense of comfort come washing over you, and you smile to yourself. It’s not easy to create music that has such a powerful emotional effect, but the genre-defying tunes these Oklahomans dish out seem to yield a sense of unbridled hope and joy. It’s ironic that they named this album – their most recent release and first for the wonderful Deep Water label – “This is the Voice of Doom Calling.” Surely doom has never sounded this sweet.

A masterful blending of minimalist repetition and light-hearted folk forms, and peppered with a touch of freeform weirdness, Anvil Salute’s oeuvre is one that refuses to wear thin. Each composition bears its own signature cadence and melodic flair – there is no formula, yet the record retains a reassuring cohesion throughout its ten tracks. Each listen of “Voice of Doom” invites delicate micro-sounds to peer through the majestic cascades of rhythmic bliss. Epic pieces, such as “Island of Genius,” “Tiniest Happiness” and the odd beauty “Balkania” are allowed to morph subtly right before our very ears, while the shorter gems carry a singular vision to fruition.

This is probably the best Anvil Salute album yet – a record in which every element of the group’s sound has flourished wonderfully. The sonic ingredients have been combined in just the right proportion to satisfy both the weird folk fan and the out-music maven. I don’t know if it’s possible for Anvil Salute to achieve greater feats than they have so far, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I recommend snatching up this wonderful slice of sonic greatness for yourselves! 10/10

We were mentioned in the Ptolemaic Terrascope's online version of Rumbles in February 2008:

... so let’s continue with Anvil Salute, whose ‘This Is the Voice of Doom Calling’ is a folk inspired collection of instrumental ramblings that is loose in its feel but tight in its musicianship. Over ten tracks, the band paints pictures with sounds, visions of running water, snowy mountaintops, deserted buildings and abandoned cars all coming into my head. For me this approach works best on the longer songs such as ‘Tiniest Happiness’, the eerie soundscape of ‘Balkania’, and the truly magical ‘My Former Life Is No Longer Mine’.

Mats Gustaffson at his blog, The Broken Face, wrote on January 15, 2008:

One can probably argue that being a regular contributor to Deep Water Publications makes it a bit difficult to review releases from their sonic brother, Deep Water Sonic Productions. But then on the other hand, this is not exactly the Rolling Stone we’re talking about so who can honestly say that they give a shit? And when something is as great as Anvil Salute’s This Is the Voice of Doom Calling I am not the one that’s going to shut up. This latest offering from Norman, Oklahoma’s finest is a nearly perfect slab of naturally evolving folk that might be too focused for some of the free folk fans out there and too fucked-up for the majority of the folk rock gang. I am not sure that’s why this band’s far-reaching meditative ambitions haven’t reached out all the way yet or not, but I do know that this inexcusable fact has to change. Free jazz inspirations work like ghost-like shadows that come in and out of the folky mix and there’s also a stunning angularity to some of these tracks that has me thinking about Velvet Underground. But the overall feel is definitely the one of cyclical music that is mesmerizing and hypnotic without being as primitive as many of the contemporaries. Beauty and inspiration rain down like manna in these instrumental folk sessions, recordings both wonderfully focused and distilled, yet free.

This comes from Lee Jackson's blog, womblife, from January 2008, and it includes a wee write-up for "All the Animals of the Forest" too.

Another band it's been a great pleasure to hear in recent moons is Oklahoma's Anvil Salute, whose This is the Voice of Doom Calling is the ensemble's first DW platter (CD-R in fact), and I'm going to agree that this is the finest Anvil Salute dish to date, fitting easily with the current free folk/improvised scene while injecting a healthy dose of traditional warmth every second of the way, which makes sense for a bunch'a freaks from Oklahoma. Highly recommended for fans of The Bummer Road, United Bible Studies, Jackie-O Motherfucker and the like. Arriving some time before and just as welcome from AS is the All The Animals of the Forest (Lofi Shit) CD-R, which is a slightly more progressive take on the above, and has an almost bouncing, festive quality in a way that makes me think of a busy forest floor bathed in sunlight and running over with all manner of scurrying little furry things.