With their first two releases on Hat Hut/Hatology and Thrill Jockey respectively, Trapist’s music sits between the reductionist improv of Polwechsel (of which 2 of their 3 members are also members) and the subdued post-rock of nineties Chicago, with their third album in a decade The Golden Years perhaps their most confounding yet. Confounding however in that with Trapist these poles are so easily reconciled and seem like the best of chums. On the one hand there’s more cocktail pleasantries than ever before, a penchant for polite yet seductive groove from drummer Martin Brandlmayr (of Polwechsel) and plangent guitar from Martin Siewert which would suit a Sea and Cake record. These make the disruptions all the more abrupt.
To be fair the groove moves at a snail’s pace, and they use slow tempo to fully explore musical space. The Gram Parsons referencing ‘The Gun that’s Hanging on the Kitchen Wall’ begins with clean guitar building into walls of feedback and amp hum, as bells and tin can percussion and looming low end from bassist Joe Williamson creep in. ‘The Spoke and the Horse’ winds throbbing drones from bass, bowed cymbals and electronics giving in to a structure of sorts recalling the memorable opening to Tortoise’s Standards. ‘Pisa’, at six minutes the shortest piece by some margin, is also the most structured, burbling tones from all players laid over an almost doom-jazz crawl. With each cut Trapist sketch out a terrain that is uniqeuly wide-eyed and exploratory, paths I could amble down endlessly and still find exciting discoveries.
Joshua Meggitt
