R. Sell, the Miami DIY musician operating as The Atlantic Manor, has done it again. His new album The World Beneath This World Is Brightening has some traces of optimism when compared to his 2009 album Slow Drugs and Other Sorrows. After kicking with kids voice singing Old McDonalds Had a Farm Sell goes in at the deep end for the fourteen minutes plus Vessels, a dreamy acoustic guitar driven dirge punctuated by wandering keyboard touches. Sell has adopted a story telling voice for this one, half way between Mark E. Smith and Henry Rollins.
Sell's main themes are sadness and loss, making music that hurts. Failing By The Second, the title track of his 2004 album, sits well with the new songs and he takes the bleakness of Nick Cave to the next level. For Sell The Good Son is a blur that might be real . No Hollywood endings, but there is a glimmer of hope shimmering through the cracks of a fucked up world in the title track The World Beneath This World Is Brightening and maybe, just maybe there will be no more war. A snippet of the gospel song Down By The Riverside turns up at the end of Black River Runs.
The Atlantic Manor:
R. Sell: vocals, guitar, noise
Ariel Herrera: drums
Bob Platt: piano, keyboard
Jorge Bejell: drums on Failing By The Second
The World Beneath This World Is Brightening is released on Do Too Records. Buy it from CD Baby.
Tracks:
- Openings
- Vessels
- Failing By The Second
- The Captains Name Was Death
- DeathCrown
- Apple Dream
- The World Beneath This World Is Brightening
- The Good Son
- Black River Runs
MP3: The Atlantic Manor - Failing By The Second
MP3: The Atlantic Manor - The World Beneath This World Is Brightening
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HCTF review of Slow Drugs and Other Sorrows.