TIMBER TIMBRE – CREEP ON CREEPIN’ ON
The sparseness which begins Canadian trio Timber Timbre’s fourth album Creep On Creepin’ On is almost as ominous as the album title itself. Bad Ritual opens with little more than restrained piano jabs and bass thuds, leaving huge caverns of silence which are both unnerving and exciting. Once the creepy orchestral sound effects and Nick Cave-style vocals enter the mix, our fears have been fully realised. This brilliantly effective opener sets the mood for the rest of the album, an eerie excursion through gothic swamp-rock and vaudeville blues reminiscent of both Tom Waits and the Velvet Underground. Timber Timbre definitely have their own distinctive sound, though. The chinking piano and ethereal crooning of frontman Taylor Kirk underpins most of the ten tracks, but the whirring electro-theremin on Woman and gloomy strings on Too Old To Die Young keep things interesting. Unsurprisingly, the lyrics are loaded with other-worldly allusions. Take the chorus from 50s bar-ballad Lonesome Hunter, for instance – “Please break this spell you have me under/ Every heart is a lonesome hunter”. To what extent Creep On Creepin’ On is a nostalgic Americana pastiche is irrelevant, though. As that sly album title clearly indicates, it was always going to be that way. The songs are still catchy, and the sounds still spooky, whichever way you look at it. All the best blues music has a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude, so what makes Timber Timbre any different?
*** ½
