album review: Arbouretum - Rites of Uncovering

So, we’re one month into 2007 and how many of this year’s albums have seeped into your skull and left you powerless against the repeat button? How many albums have warranted listening sessions that last six or eight hours? How many albums have made you want to burn copies for your friends so you’d have someone else to talk to about how great the record is? You see where I’m going here? Ladies and gentleman, Arbouretum gives us Rites of Uncovering.

Arbouretum plays thick guitar rock with quivering, and sometimes aching, vocals. Their songs often slip into instrumental freak-outs where band members play to the point where a collapse seems imminent. I felt tired for them listening to "The Rise", probably the best of the eight tracks (please, please, pretty please, play this song as loudly as you and/or your neighbors can stand). Yet they consistently keep the music headed somewhere. Songs don’t get bogged down under the weight of it all, even during the heaviest, slowest passages. Some tracks lull you into a false sense of security, only to shatter that feeling with guitar blasts and thunderous drumming. If you like your guitars heavy and prominently featured, check out Arbouretum.

Rites of Uncovering has a mystical, dreamy quality, perhaps because of the way David Heumann sounds like he’s the voice of experience, or maybe it’s song titles like "Sleep of Shiloam" and "Mohammed’s Hex and Bounty." Either way, the man can sing. Subtle instrument touches, like xylophone, round out an impressive sound that makes Arbouretum the authors of the first completely sick, absolutely great album of 2007. (John Byrne)

Listen to Arbouretum live last month at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, Charlottesville, Virginia at Monkeyclaus.

Arbouretum - "Signposts and Instruments" mp3 buy

Upcoming Shows:

Feb 12 2007 6:00P
Other Music - instore performance
New York, New York

Feb 14 2007 8:00P
North Star Bar w/ Beach House and Ponieheart
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Feb 15 2007 8:00P
Great Scott's w/Bishops at Large
Boston, Massachusetts

Feb 16 2007 10:00P
Uncle Paulie's w/Bishops at Large and Blues Control
Brooklyn, New York

Feb 17 2007 8:00P
AV Space Rochester, New York

Photo credit: Daniel Arnold