The Appleseed Cast

Item: Low Level Owl, Vol. 1
Author: Bert Gangl

Low Level Owl, Vol. 1

(2001)

Reviewed by Bert Gangl

Discogs Bandcamp Apple Music TIDAL Spotify YouTube Music

Label Deep Elm RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2001

emo post-rock

Low Level Owl: Volume I, the third full-length project from the Appleseed Cast, is the first of two entries in a 26-song set from the Lawrence, Kansas-based quartet, with the second volume slated for release in late October of 2001. Like The End of the Ring Wars and Mare Vitalis before it, the latest effort falls broadly into the emo/dream pop section of the modern rock panorama. But where Ring Wars established the group's firm grasp of guitar-driven post-grunge and Mare Vitalis followed a more subdued, atmospheric path, Low Level Owl harvests the collective spirit of both works and sifts the result through a dazzling latticework of pure pop know-how. The fantastically rousing "Mile Marker" proceeds nimbly from the sunny, loping alterna-pop of Matthew Sweet to an all-out volley of crashing cymbals and distorted guitars at song's end. "Signal" is a similarly stunning blend of ambient instrumental trimmings, poignant word pictures (Stand there/Dance with a memory/ The caption reads/ It's all over now/ Do you feel alone) and soaring harmonies, all nailed firmly to a solid mastery of the pop music format. On top of all of this, the sundry instruments, loops and sound effects are blended together in such a way that they form a sort of homogenous musical backcloth whose beautifully lush ambience works to anchor the record's imposing sense of continuity.

Where Mare Vitalis and Ring Wars included only two instrumental songs between them, Low Level Owl features seven instrumentals, each segued with their vocal counterparts such that the album runs from start to finish without breaks. "Bird of Paradise" is a pleasantly frenetic entry that sports an oddly engaging pattern of piercing electronic notes. The lullabylike opener, "The Waking of Pertelotte," is a soothing, similarly well-constructed piece that perfectly establishes Owl's airy and contemplative tone. On the other hand, the overly repetitious construction of "Flowers Falling From Dying Hands" and "Messenger" makes all but the first few measures of these songs tedious. Likewise, the album-closing "View of a Burning City" squanders nearly half of its copious eight minute running time to what sounds, more than anything else, like random industrial noise. And the looping of only a single drum rhythm and four-note guitar line for close to three minutes on "Doors Lead to Questions" offers little incentive for anything but the most cursory listen. Still, if the bulk of the instrumental efforts possess a mostly superfluous character, they simultaneously exhibit both a consummate sense of sonic layering and a meticulous attention to detail. And their collective weakness is certainly offset by the vocal portion of the release, which boasts some of the finest modern rock that the genre has to offer. Indeed, with emo currently being all the rage and the pop/rock landscape veritably swarming with sound-alike artists, the members of the Appleseed Cast have risen to the occasion and created a particularly striking work that is as distinctive as it is grand.

3.5 tocks