RIP THROUGH THE HAWK BLACK NIGHT

Within the first three minutes of their debut record, Rip Through the Hawk Black Night, Make a Rising already gives a cautionary sign to listeners that their music isn't constricted to tight structures or silly things called genres. The first section of the first song, for instance, is a quasi-a cappella quickly checkered by beats of shattering glass, witty sax, and gypsy-esque piano, then quickly joined by violin... the sounds walk off the stage. Those beautiful vocals arrive again accompanied by harmonizing keys, and dissonant chimes with sax soon to nightmarishly contort the dream-like consonance introducing a short, abrupt crescendo of raucous purportions. STOP. Cliffs and free-falls start here, a fight between a soft, melodic piano and the sister crescendos. Slowly the music fades away to a rhythmic ambience...

...A hawk and a train pass through my ears, and then errupts an entirely new musical anthem... which after a mere 15 seconds dies as well. Listeners may find these abrupt swellings unsatisfying, but after listening to the album AS A WHOLE, they will come to understand why they actually work. In fact, this song is a good representation of the entire album. Songs by themselves are very uneven, one song in particular finds its climax in the last 45 seconds, it's a four minute song in its entirety. But don't let that detract from your interest because I haven't told you the most important reason for all of this.

Songs shouldn't really be considered songs by Make a Rising, think of them more as suites... every song on this album connects in some form or another, and they all complete eachother. Rip Through the Hawk Black Night isn't just some group of songs, they're intricately placed SECTIONS of an entire album. That climax I mentioned in the four minute song?, that leads directly to a beautifully ugly upsurge in the beginning of the following song. It also helps that there are no choruses or set structures in any of the songs, though they are meticulously crafted via through-compositions (like their second album, Infinite Ellipse and Head with Open Fontanel).

The first song also helps describe general instrumentation of their music, very little of it is focused on guitar. In fact, there isn't really any main instrument within their music whatsoever, but it includes piano, trumpet, clarinet, violin, bass, percussion (not just drums, make note), and the aforementioned guitar. Production and mixing aren't the best either, making it sometimes hard to hear the drumming in particular, but that could have been for artistic reasons.

If you truly want something new, please check this out. MAR is sure deserving of some more fans.