While the tense and dramatic vocals of Wilderness’ James Johnson immediately bring John Lydon and Public Image Limited to mind, the music often tells a very different story. It’s post-punk, but not in the Interpol 2nd edition of Joy Division kind of way. It’s avant garde, but not excessively artsy. You could try to describe it as post-rock, but it’s not epic in structure or volume. The bass line on “Strand the Test of Time” is precise and decisive, inching up and down at a measured pace, while the drumming is far more active, in its role in building a brooding, and ominous tone. This number is all about mood, and how that mood is broken at the moment Colin McCann’s guitar enters the mix, ratcheting up the intensity with a jittery, yet somewhat anthemic riff, as if a young Edge had one espresso too many, pushing him dangerously close to manic.
MP3: Wilderness – Strand the Test of Time
(k)no(w)here by Wilderness is due out November 3rd on Jagjaguwar Records.
