Detailed Reviews [Knitting By Twilight - 2005 - "Someone to Break the Silence"]

Prolusion. America's KNITTING BY TWILIGHT presents selections from their forthcoming full-length CD, "An Evening Out of Town". John Orsi appears to be the driving force behind this EP, having composed in part or whole all the compositions and the only musician listed to play on all tracks.

Analysis. Today my day began in gridlock. I was heading out of town on business. The drive normally takes an hour and a half, but today I found myself sitting in traffic that looked more like a parking lot than the interstate highway I was on. There had been an accident and at the convergence of two highways traffic was at a standstill. It took an hour to move 2 miles. (Thankfully, it appeared that no one was hurt in the multi-car accident, just a lot of damaged vehicles with disgruntled drivers standing around.) The morning was absolutely beautiful. The sun was slowly peeking over the horizon in my rear view mirror. The air was crisp and the sky was clear, but I was going nowhere. Suddenly I realized this was the perfect metaphor for "Someone to Break the Silence". It is crystal clear, but goes nowhere. It was the soundtrack to my time in a traffic jam. The recording is very nice and clear. The guitar work and drums on Sigh made me think that this was going to be something special, but alas the repetition is relentless. The cymbal work breaks the monotony, but is not really sufficient to flesh it out. The percussion throughout is extremely well done. Melody seems to be of little importance to Knitting By Twilight, taking a backseat to textures and tonalities. Holiday to Holiday has a bit of melody line, sung by Karen Orsi, which sounds very much like the theme from Brad Friedel's Terminator soundtracks, but a light and ethereal interpretation. From time to time, a male voice says: "It's good to see you". Who knows why? The main vocal line is sung by a male voice and utilizes only three notes, almost more of a chant than singing. She's Not Here She's Far Ahead has a heavier sound in the intro, but then settles into a lighter clinking and clanking, like an orchestra of bottles and cymbals while the vocal sings the verses. Again, there is not much of a melody here, but the sound textures are interesting. Mr. Santini is an overly long guitar solo, with the name, Mr. Santini, being spoken from time to time for the duration of the track. Is this supposed to be creative?

Conclusion. All in all, these feel much more like studies in sound, ideas that might become songs, than songs in themselves. "Someone to Break the Silence" is definitely not mainstream, but is more trance than prog. The musicians certainly demonstrate proficiency with their instruments, but they desperately need someone to compose music for them to play. What they have here is a collection of textural soundscapes that are incredibly monotonous in their repetition. Sometimes weirdness is interesting, but sometimes it's merely annoying.

KW: February 7, 2006