Album Reviews : Dumbsaint – Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form

Dumbsaint are a Sydney based three piece who have been around since 2007. It has taken them five years to release their debut album, Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form,  but seeing as the band seeks to present “an ‘installation where sound and image interact” it makes sense that they didn’t jump straight to recording a record.  Dumbsaint are clearly a live band, and all reports indicate that they are a pretty good one, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make an excellent studio album.

The album opens with some chanting, before bursting into some tight and precise drumming and delay rich guitar lines. There’s a sort of musical undercurrent to the song as it drifts and bounces around in its own space, the bass and guitar parts weaving in together and out together, tied to the central point of rhythm: the drummer. Sure enough some fuzz filled powerchords kick in, but only for a moment. It’s then back to the simmering, soft spoken styling of the first three minutes of the song. The song seems to build, the pace picks up, but a left turn at the last minute loops it back to more of the reserved, glassy, and introverted guitar sounds. The song is an awkward moment drawn out: just as you think the climax of the song arrives, it peaks off. Tension rises and tension falls. Finally the distortion is kicked on, the drumming picks up pace, and everything drives towards the final moment, powering along towards the song’s grand finale. The song not only rocks, it is also an immaculately constructed soundscape.

The sonic qualities described above pretty much cover it. Dumbsaint have honed in on a distinctive sound and style: fuzz based distortion, glassy delayed melodic riffs and  the continual mounting of tension. The band has an extremely cinematic feel to their music, as you’re drawn into the musical plot, as it escalates and de-escalates, you are pulled along with the twists and turns and false build ups. More so than music, Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form is about sound.  The album is full of moments that are sonically intense, or sonically dark, or both as on “INT.A CHEERLESS ROOM. A MAN IS SCARED”. Whose cinematic title hints at the song’s film like sense of atmosphere, some of which is conveyed through sparse sound bites mixed into the music. The song catches the sense of panic and paranoia  that are present in the sound bites, dragging the listener into one of the darkest and most powerful songs on the album.

Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form  is album with incredible musicianship, a focus on sonic detail, and a powerful atmosphere. Over eight songs, the album runs for almost an hour  and towards the final track things start to get stale. The repetitive nature of the music starts to really weigh in towards the end, something post-metal icons Neurosis and ISIS both managed to avoid on their records.

All in all Something The You Feel Will Find Its Own Form  isn’t the easiest album to just sit down and listen to. It requires concentration, time and something resembling the right frame of mind. But when all the pieces fall in place, it’s one hell of an album, and even when they don’t, it’s an excellent and incredibly impressive record. 9.3/10

Band: Dumbsaint
Album: Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form
Year: 2012
Genre: Post Metal
http://birdsrobe.bandcamp.com/album/something-that-you-feel-will-find-its-own-form

Tracklist:
1.Rivers Will Be Crossed
2.Cinematic
3.Lying In Sign
4.Don’t Forget To Bring Down The Sky
5.INT. A CHEERLESS ROOM. A MAN IS SCARED
6.Inwaking
7.She Was His
8.I Am An Image