Empath — Active Listening: Night On Earth (May 3, 2019) 
•★• Pro nezasvěcené, je to prostě noise. Je tu citace z filmu Juno 2007 (režie Jason Reitman), kde jsem slyšel, jak se znovu a znovu objevuje ‚ad nauseum‘ (ostatní jsou již unaveni z neustálého opakování toho, co již bylo řečeno, co již všichni vědí); hlavní postava, kterou hraje Ellen Page, říká Jasonu Batemanovi po nepříjemném okamžiku: „Ach a víš co? Koupil jsem si další album Sonic Youth a nasál jsem ho. Je to jen hluk.“
•★• Do značné míry je to odezva na spoustu noise rocku, zvláště když žánr v posledních letech učinil robinzonádu a ponořil se s nespočetnými napodobiteli, odmítajícími rozšířit svůj sound. Ale je tu rozdíl. Začleněním více než průměrné instrumentace, Empath vdechl nový život do žánru, který se už mírně ztrácel.
•★• Empath jde daleko za zvuk ptáků, kteří slabě cvrlikali. Je to kapela, která píše písně společně s přírodou, převádí všechny zmatené a zahalené idiosyncrasie do harmonií. Empath začal v roce 2016, kdy se Garrett Koloski, Em Shanahan a Catherine Elicson společně přestěhovali do domu ve West Philadelphii společně a krítce poté i Randall Coone. Dokonce pouze s jednoduchou vizí, kterou je potřeba zničit všechna klišé, na albu existuje přirozená citlivost způsobu, jakým Empath komunikuje. Mezi kontrastem bujných, téměř delikátních vokálů Elicson, bouřlivého Koloskiho bubnování a napůl harmonické kytarové koupele a syntetizátorů Em Shanahana a Coona nás Empath vystavuje zdravé dávce emocionálního odpočinku.
Location: West Philadelphia, Pensylvannia
Style: Noise, Indie Rock, Lo~Fi
Album release: May 3, 2019
Record Label: Get Better Records
Duration: 27:16
Tracks:
1. Soft Shape 3:01
2. Pure Intent 4:11
3. Hanging Out of Cars 3:18
4. Roses That Cry 3:50
5. Rowing 2:18
6. Heaven 0:58
7. IV 3:22
8. Decor 2:27
9. Redeo Fever 3:51
Personnel:
• Catherine Elicson: vocals and guitar
• Emily Shanahan: Keys
• Randall Coon: Keys
• Garrett Koloski: Drums
• Recorded, mixed, mastered by Shaun Sutkus at Walter Schreifels’s house in North Branch, NY. First pressing.
Review
By WILL HERMES; Score: ★★★½
• Philly avant~punks find consensus in stylistic dissent.
• After a surprising amount of press attention for a band yet to release a full album, Philadelphia’s Empath finally drop their debut: a fierce, spacey, cacophonous, 27~minute~long LP. Like the EP and singles that preceded it, Active Listening: Night On Earth is defined by manic mood swings. Plenty of great bands bring together disparate musicians in a singular unified voice. What’s thrilling about Empath is how they resist the singular. They sound like four people who sat in a room flexing their own freaky styles until — before they realized their interests might be wholly incompatible — the chaos created its own logic.
• “Soft Shape” opens with twittering birds (at this point, an Empath signature) and a bulbous synth~pop riff; then frontwoman Catherine Elicson starts singing woozily, like she’s rocking hairbrush microphone in her bedroom mirror. She confesses she feels alone in a crowd; the music’s swirling clamor echoes the sentiment, then jumpcuts into “Pure Intent,” a shambling hardcore blast that gives way 2/3 through to an ambient instrumental softly strummed guitar and gentle synthesizer billowing. “Hanging Out Of Cars” lurches into another punk~ish rant, with galloping beats by drummer Garett Koloski (former rocket~engine of Perfect Pussy), Elicson announcing “desire ends in death” and “an empty space is the most I’ve ever felt” before it all dissolves into a trance~inducing weave of krautrock electronics and processed babble.
• The juxtapositions shouldn’t make sense, but they do, and not just because they can recall the Bad Brains’ radical mix of high~speed mosh~pit soundtracks and dub space~outs. In 2019, after all, random shuffle~mixes are as common a listening experience as programmed radio. And given the influence of playlists and streams shaped by corporate algorithms (Pop Punk’s Not Dead, in case you were wondering), it feels truly punk to slot a riot grrrl style tirade (“Heaven”) next to meditative organ and guitar noodling (“IV”). What may once have been considered ADD is now the new normal.
• The muddiness of the recording functions as a unifying effect, although sometimes you wish the murk would clear a bit, because the music makes you want to push up front and hear what’s happening. Like on “Rowing,” an apparent riff on poet Anne Sexton’s “The Awful Rowing Toward God,” in which Elicson declares “I threw it all into the wind and abandoned that island,” and the band pulls itself together into a single wild, flailing beast for two~plus minutes — throwing it all into the wind together, evidently happy to be off their respective islands, at least for a while. • https://www.rollingstone.com/
Also:
Sasha Geffen, Score: 8.0
• https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/empath-active-listening-night-on-earth/
______________________________________________
•★• Do značné míry je to odezva na spoustu noise rocku, zvláště když žánr v posledních letech učinil robinzonádu a ponořil se s nespočetnými napodobiteli, odmítajícími rozšířit svůj sound. Ale je tu rozdíl. Začleněním více než průměrné instrumentace, Empath vdechl nový život do žánru, který se už mírně ztrácel.
•★• Empath jde daleko za zvuk ptáků, kteří slabě cvrlikali. Je to kapela, která píše písně společně s přírodou, převádí všechny zmatené a zahalené idiosyncrasie do harmonií. Empath začal v roce 2016, kdy se Garrett Koloski, Em Shanahan a Catherine Elicson společně přestěhovali do domu ve West Philadelphii společně a krítce poté i Randall Coone. Dokonce pouze s jednoduchou vizí, kterou je potřeba zničit všechna klišé, na albu existuje přirozená citlivost způsobu, jakým Empath komunikuje. Mezi kontrastem bujných, téměř delikátních vokálů Elicson, bouřlivého Koloskiho bubnování a napůl harmonické kytarové koupele a syntetizátorů Em Shanahana a Coona nás Empath vystavuje zdravé dávce emocionálního odpočinku.
Location: West Philadelphia, Pensylvannia
Style: Noise, Indie Rock, Lo~Fi
Album release: May 3, 2019
Record Label: Get Better Records
Duration: 27:16
Tracks:
1. Soft Shape 3:01
2. Pure Intent 4:11
3. Hanging Out of Cars 3:18
4. Roses That Cry 3:50
5. Rowing 2:18
6. Heaven 0:58
7. IV 3:22
8. Decor 2:27
9. Redeo Fever 3:51
Personnel:
• Catherine Elicson: vocals and guitar
• Emily Shanahan: Keys
• Randall Coon: Keys
• Garrett Koloski: Drums
• Recorded, mixed, mastered by Shaun Sutkus at Walter Schreifels’s house in North Branch, NY. First pressing.
Review
By WILL HERMES; Score: ★★★½
• Philly avant~punks find consensus in stylistic dissent.
• After a surprising amount of press attention for a band yet to release a full album, Philadelphia’s Empath finally drop their debut: a fierce, spacey, cacophonous, 27~minute~long LP. Like the EP and singles that preceded it, Active Listening: Night On Earth is defined by manic mood swings. Plenty of great bands bring together disparate musicians in a singular unified voice. What’s thrilling about Empath is how they resist the singular. They sound like four people who sat in a room flexing their own freaky styles until — before they realized their interests might be wholly incompatible — the chaos created its own logic.
• “Soft Shape” opens with twittering birds (at this point, an Empath signature) and a bulbous synth~pop riff; then frontwoman Catherine Elicson starts singing woozily, like she’s rocking hairbrush microphone in her bedroom mirror. She confesses she feels alone in a crowd; the music’s swirling clamor echoes the sentiment, then jumpcuts into “Pure Intent,” a shambling hardcore blast that gives way 2/3 through to an ambient instrumental softly strummed guitar and gentle synthesizer billowing. “Hanging Out Of Cars” lurches into another punk~ish rant, with galloping beats by drummer Garett Koloski (former rocket~engine of Perfect Pussy), Elicson announcing “desire ends in death” and “an empty space is the most I’ve ever felt” before it all dissolves into a trance~inducing weave of krautrock electronics and processed babble.
• The juxtapositions shouldn’t make sense, but they do, and not just because they can recall the Bad Brains’ radical mix of high~speed mosh~pit soundtracks and dub space~outs. In 2019, after all, random shuffle~mixes are as common a listening experience as programmed radio. And given the influence of playlists and streams shaped by corporate algorithms (Pop Punk’s Not Dead, in case you were wondering), it feels truly punk to slot a riot grrrl style tirade (“Heaven”) next to meditative organ and guitar noodling (“IV”). What may once have been considered ADD is now the new normal.
• The muddiness of the recording functions as a unifying effect, although sometimes you wish the murk would clear a bit, because the music makes you want to push up front and hear what’s happening. Like on “Rowing,” an apparent riff on poet Anne Sexton’s “The Awful Rowing Toward God,” in which Elicson declares “I threw it all into the wind and abandoned that island,” and the band pulls itself together into a single wild, flailing beast for two~plus minutes — throwing it all into the wind together, evidently happy to be off their respective islands, at least for a while. • https://www.rollingstone.com/
Also:
Sasha Geffen, Score: 8.0
• https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/empath-active-listening-night-on-earth/
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