Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces

Lo, to be a post-millenial post-rocker; the spectre of Slint as pervasively haunting as that ghost in Bowser’s castle, the genre’s grand day out at the turn of the century as bygone an era as the swing revival. Monolithic tempos and doomsday atmospherics soldier on into the pictures (see the ease with which Mogwai fit Miami Vice), but wordless chunks of overlong tension with occasional release seem largely devoid of whatever weight they might’ve once carried. So it’s a very heavy trip indeed that Ohio-based after-rockers The Six Parts Seven’s Casually Smashed to Pieces takes one on, glistening its way, as it does, into the upper echelon of early 2007 releases. Taking cues from Shrimp Boat and their resulting wake, the band finds favor in its supple melodic sweep, supergluing tumbling guitars and twinkling banjos to their directional churn. If Godspeed You! Black Emperor was a glorybound victory lap and Sigur Ros a submersion in neonatal fluid, Casually Smashed feels more like a dip in a lazy river, and indeed, the emphasis on the pastoral both fuels and distinguishes the record. Shades of Spiritualized’s heavy sedation and even a bit of Lambchop’s highfalutin’ hillbilly histrionics rear their pretty heads, but Casually Smashed amalgamates familiar sounds rather than overtly borrowing them. There are times when I’d kill for a lyric or two—and not simply because it’s no easy task to put words to the voiceless—but Casually Smashed to Pieces’ thirty-one minutes refuse to drag and repeatedly compel. [www.suicidesqueeze.net]