ANY DAY NOW

Any Day Now is a 21-minute instrumental divided into four tracks - - although listening to the EP straight through, you'd be unlikely to guess where the divisions are. Any Day Now alternates between soft and loud sections, and between uplifting themes and sections of pensive or indeterminate mood.

The main instruments seem to be two guitars and a drum kit; the bass guitar doesn't really stand out - - but maybe it's my sound system. There are also sections which seem to be backed with synthesizer washes which on closer inspection are guitars with sweetening effects. There are also some passages which feature some nicely played violin, such as on the first track, "Geigerteller" ("Geiger counter"). With its shifting moods, "Geigerteller" is a microcosm of Any Day Now as a whole. Melodically, it's also reminiscent of "Jan Mayen Skyline" from their previous EP, Machine! Fire! Ghost!.

"Geigerteller" and "Up! Up! Up!" are bridged by the aptly-named transition "In Transit," a pensive, rhythmless passage which melts from one piece to the other, and it's not until the rhythmic part of "Up! Up! Up!" begins two minutes into the song that I know for sure that the transition is over. "Up! Up! Up!" Grows more intense, closing with a heavier section in 9/8, or maybe 9/4 - - but not as heavy as the opening of "Beauty of the Night." After two minutes of slow, noisy, distorted guitars with drum fills and feedback squeals, "Beauty" is suddenly transformed into a plaintive 3/4 passage focused mainly on plucked guitar and solo violin, with cymbals and guitar chords in back. Eventually the drummer plays picks up the midtempo beat, and the heavily distorted guitar(s) from the first movement return, resolving into a majestic theme over a long fade,closed with some very faint, high-pitched notes.

Any Day Now improves upon 1099's debut EP, Machine! Fire! Ghost!, although in my opinion, they're still wavering between creating experimental, semi-structured songs and broad, impressionistic soundscapes. They seem better suited to the latter, but the stylistic shifts, while nicely executed, are too frequent for me to enjoy this as ambient music. But it's still admirable for what it is.