It seems as of recent I have been on my miniature soapbox proclaiming the few bands that endeavor to meander in the softer realm of the post-rock genre. While the latest offering from the veteran Ohio outfit Six Parts Seven would appear to need little declaration of its greatness here at The Silent Ballet, the stars have misaligned and this sublime release somehow fell through the cracks.

Despite warranting the much sought after “Release of the Month” title following its initial release in January, the album never received a proper review, proving again the stylistic leanings of the majority of post-rock listeners. While a blunder of this magnitude could prove as detrimental to The Silent Ballet’s bid to be the end-all-be-all purveyors of all things post-rock as an errant misstep proved ruinous to the Presidential aspirations of Bob Dole; I am determined to right this wrong and redeem the pretentious ‘cred’ that we here at TSB hold dear.

The group’s fourth full length, Casually Smashed to Pieces is an amalgamation of all the things 6p7 have done best in the past twelve years. The sweeping slide guitar placed atop delicately picked intertwining guitars that helped define 6p7 sound on Silence Magnifies Sound and Things Shaped in Passing, coalesce now with the astute maturity of a band completely assured of its place in the instrumental spectrum. The prior charming timidity of songs such as “Sleeping Diagonally” and “Where are the Timpani Heartbeats” are replaced with the subtle bravado of “Falling Over Everything.” Here, the melodic structure of the song is no longer in question as the bass is given a slight overdrive and stray trumpets assist in accentuating the guitar lines.

The sixth track, “Confusing Possibilities,” exemplifies the band's firm grasp on the delicacies of dynamics. While most undeveloped bands only utilize either ‘soft’ or ‘loud’ dynamic shifts, Six Parts Seven accentuates each sub-phrase differently, using minor crescendos and decrescendos with varied guitar tones to allow for repetition while staving off banality. The understated variance in the album’s brief thirty-one minutes practically achieves the dynamic finesse of a seasoned orchestra.

This album needs little proselytization from critical peons such as myself. The 6p7’s music and longevity as a band are both merited. Hopefully an album of this degree will not fall into the TSB black hole for six months again.

-Thomas Lloyd