Signer: The New Face Of Smiling
Carpark

Following up 2002's Low Light Dreams was proving difficult for Bevan Smith (Signer) until he experienced an epiphany of sorts. Rather than try to create 'beautiful' music, he ventured to create the opposite: music that sounds horrible and broken. The idea proved to be a breakthrough until, disastrously, his hard drive deleted the tracks he'd been working on. Data recovery rescued a large number, but many had become corrupted and sounded even more destroyed yet, in his estimation, better than before. After drums and more guitars were added, the record neared completion.

This summary of the album's genesis helps explain the radical change in sound from the vaporous ambiance of Low Light Dreams to the rawer The New Face of Smiling. A critical detail not yet mentioned is that Bevan's latest work takes its inspiration from Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine, with the new songs incorporating the acerbic flavorings of the former and the shoegazing blur of the latter. The album starts promisingly with “Low Light Sleep” whose ambient calm is quickly obliterated by electric guitar scrapings that threaten to bury Smith's hushed vocalizing. The next song “Hurricane Or Sunshine?” is strong too, as his soft singing emerges through crackling layers of processed percussion and acoustic guitars. But aside from the synth-heavy “I Was Dressed As The Ant, You Dressed Up As A Beehive” and “Frozen Cut Grass,” an atmospheric oasis of softly strummed guitars and faint ambient clicks and shimmer, what follows impresses less. The indie-folk “Machines At Low Tide” includes guitar dissonance that recalls Sonic Youth but it's melodically unmemorable. There's undistinguished instrumental soundscaping (“You're Killing Us Helen”) and “That Sinking Feeling As Key Metal Hits Thigh Flesh” sounds more like a sloppy basement rehearsal than anything else. The song's simple, plodding beats don't help, and on other tracks the drums are lethargic. Smith's vocals, while pleasant, lack dynamic contrast.

Give him credit for taking a riskier route with The New Face of Smiling rather than release Low Light Dreams Part Two. Regrettably, the results are mixed as it doesn't play to Smith's strengths, and, if anything, moves him closer to conventional territory where his music's individuating qualities, so appealingly showcased on Low Light Dreams, get lost in the haze.

October 2004

This review also appears in Grooves, issue 15.