Signal Morning
Cloud Recordings
By Julia Reidy
Circulatory System’s Signal
Morning embodies everything that’s great about Athens’ famed Elephant 6
collective — the experimental streak, the grumbling soundscapes, the ‘60s pop
throwback vocals and guitar work (complete with backwards records), the
psychedelia — without everything it risks. Will Cullen Hart (formerly of The
Olivia Tremor Control), the band’s heart and head, never lets the album get
overblown or long-winded. Thoughts never continue longer than the amount of
time for which they’re interesting. The songs never get precious or twee (I’m
lookin’ at you, early Of Montreal), even at its most adorable moments (“News
From The Heavenly Loom”).
Nothing — nothing! — remains static, whether it be an
under-a-minute-long interlude (of which the album’s got plenty) or rambling
electronic number. The only-48-second “Electronic Diversion,” for instance, is
a pentatonic rave that busts unexpectedly but somehow necessarily into a low,
House-y dance growl. And the record’s longest track, “Round Again,” at a full
5:36 minutes, is a fully-developed electro-pop statement. With a melody
reminiscent of George Harrison at his most Ravi Shankar-obsessed, the song’s
lyrics speak of mortality and the changeability of life while the music itself
rounds corner after corner, satisfyingly returning to its original home in the
end. The album turns on a dime from nostalgic (“Tiny Concerts”) to emotional
(“Overjoyed”) to transcendent (“The Frozen Lake/The Symmetry,” “Signal
Morning”).
But Hart and Co. don’t use all this motion as a diversionary
tactic; it only enhances the rich songwriting underneath. “I You We,” for
example, packs all the beauty Circulatory System can muster into 1:31 minutes
full of duetting acoustic guitars and moaning cello (or something cello-like).
And “Particle Parades” explores what sometimes seems to be the Elephant 6’s
lyrical thesis: disbelief about our very existence. Hart talks about a world
that’s “make believe,” about “a dream that’s real.” It certainly is a beautiful
dream, and Circulatory System seems to possess a unique ability to show us,
musically, every little bit of it.
