Back in late September, while at Decibel Festival, my friend suggested going to one of the afterhours sets. While I thought I was too old for 4 AM dance music, Brendan Angelides (aka Eskmo/Welder) proved me wrong. Performing by his Eskmo cognomen that early morning, a room full of overly-hydrated, yet certainly drugged raver castoffs was treated to a healthy thumping. Extracted from his live entity, The Chalice Well EP is his second effort as Welder.
“Animominde” starts the journey off, pushing one’s canoe off the rambunctious gravel and into the placid waters of a plodding river. A simple string sample sets a feel of universal reverberation, which begs the question if the title is a play on the Latin Anima Mundi (“Soul of the World”). That sample does have a cut time feel to it regardless of the fact that it isn’t in 2/2 time.
On “When Do We Go” it ramps up the energy quickly with stuttered drum programming connotative of Clark’s “Herr Bar.” In his programming there’s a brushed snare laden drum patch that still has enough power to give a nod to the likes of Chick Webb. However, the vocals on this track detract focus from the intricacies of the melody and rhythms and the way they are processed feels too plastic for the rest of the song. “Lusha” also has this problem, though it rocks back and forth like our canoe drifting downriver on cat’s paws (an effect of wind on otherwise flat water, for those that are scratching their heads). The piano tracks are layered like clay on an architectural dig, each telling their own piece of a larger story. Regrettably, the larger arc of the record doesn’t carry this quality as well.
The track to track flow of Chalice Well is an improvement over the Bamboo Snow EP, but it ends up feeling like a collection of singles. This is not meant to be harsh, rather that it seems Angelides has found an identifiable style of sound and that may be one of the next elements of sound and album construction to tackle.
That sound of his is an interesting, sometimes perplexing, point of tension in the middle of a tug-of-war between being pelvic and cinematic.
-Gabriel Bogart