Now almost better known as a writer, after his impressive "Records Ruin the Landscape", Prismrose reminds about one of the figures that built the genre known as post-rock. However, instead of returning on paths already taken, this albums is mostly a guitar-only one, featuring only the drums of Eli Keszler and the voice of the author as an exception, and could be seen as an exploration, or a return, of a classical form in music: the piece for guitar.
The long opening track of this release, "How to Hear What's Less than Meets the Ear", reminds to a rock form that is canonical at a sound level but is avant at harmonic level: an almost simple melodic guitar arpeggio is developed by variation in the first part until is transformed in a chord leading the entrance of the others instruments. "Cheery Eh" is a guitar meditation vaguely based upon classical tunes for guitar while "Learned Astronomer" is a proper song. "Manifesto in Clear Language" oscillates between meditative moment and harsher ones using the some notes with a clear sound or a distorted one. "Nightfall in the Covered Cage" is a quiet piece for guitar and "The Bonsai Waterfall" sounds like his prosecution as if the previous piece was for single notes, this features open chords in the first part, the second part, which juxtaposes a distorted guitar line, closes this release with the fading of the amplifier.
This release underlines the writing quality of David Grubbs that publish a record that could seem far for any ground-breaking moments but reveal a concern for form which is really rare these days. For the ones which doesn't listen only "the next big thing".