| Duane Raider | September 12, 2009 07:02 PM |
Thought Forms - Thought Forms [Album]
Thought Forms have created an ethereal masterpiece of soaring soundscapes. Like the philosophy of the book that shares their name, the listener is presented with an almost fully realized mental terrain to explore. A shared idea, given life by the artist and maintained by the audience. Thought Forms could be described as excellent post-rock or modern shoegaze, but I’d push for religious iconography. Thought Forms are creating the dogma of sonic worship.
Sweeping in scope, the first track: “Twenty Satellites on my hill” moves slowly, if at all. The sound of fuzz through a rotating Leslie effect pans back and forth from hard right to hard left. Drums barely tapping an accent splash. Then we move into the reverb wash, and classic shoegaze ideology of the following track: “Industry”.
The whole album wraps up like it began. Once more the rotating fuzz and almost non-existent drumming. A fullness as the circle closes. I heard rarely a goddamn vocal on this till track 4: “Nothing is as easy as you think”. True words, since I usually find I can derive much insight into the character of the musicians from the things they choose to sing about. However, it could also be said that choosing not to sing is just as telling. Geoff Barrow, of Portishead and Invada Records, was quoted as saying; “…they’ve got that shoegazing thing going on too. And if they’re looking at their shoes it means they’re not looking in the mirror, know what I mean?” there is truth here somewhere.
Any musician that is more interested in musical aesthetic over egocentric involvement moves their music from common entertainment to a purist ideal view of art. Is it fair to say that Thought Forms have done that here? Created honest to Christ art? I think so. And I applaud Thought Forms for it.
An excellent album. | 
