Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Song(s) of the Day # 2,462 Pool Holograph

 

Sometimes I make an impression of an album within a few seconds and listen onwards with that impression in mind, not sure of what I think until a central question is resolved.


Such was the case with the quite magnificently entitled Love Touched Time and Time Began To Sweat, the  third album from Chicago quartet Pool Holograph. The question I asked myself was one concerning influence and I continued listening to see if they managed to answer that central issue to a satisfactory degree.


The influence in question is that of three bands in particular. Because Love Touched Time sounds immediately and very specifically like Omni, Deerhunter and Television. Lead singer and guiding light Wayne Grant directly channels Bradford Cox and through him Tom Verlaine's agonised wail from the early days of CBGB's, while the band jump and spark very much like Omn throughout . These are unmistakable connections to make and I listened onwards, intrigued to see if he and they managed to transcend their reference points.


I'd say they, and the record do. It occupies a particular space. Arty, angular and oblique. Full of those passionate yet remote strategies that Television first brought to the table of Rock and Roll way back when. 'Never the rose. Without the prick.' If you don't care for Television and Deerhunter you probably won't care for Pool Holograph, if you do you probably will. I'd say it's as simple as that.


I do, and I do. Love Touched Time and Time Began To Sweat, chimes and aches in all the right ways. I'll return here in a few days in my Albums of the Year rundown. A lowly placing perhaps, because as good as it is it never totally transcends where it comes from. But a quite lovely record nevertheless.



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