Remora- Enamored

The product of 4 years of work and narrowed down from over 100 compositions, Enamored, the new full-length release from Remora, features 14 tracks blending moody ethereal rock and ambient noise born almost entirely of guitar, bass, and vocals. The central project of Silber Records founder Brian John Mitchell, Remora's new offering continues the project's trend toward more structured song-oriented material. The resulting album is a moderately interesting, albeit somewhat unpolished and uneven, foray into minimalist ethereal rock and ambient guitar noise. Note that the tracklisting on all copies of the album's first pressing is completely out of order, apparently due to a little snafu with the master. Here's the track order as it appears on the disc, pieced together from the booklet's lyrics (with the 5 instrumental tracks still a mystery):

1. The One I've Been Waiting For
2. Volcana
3. (instrumental)
4. Kill My Way Out of Here
5. Out of Air
6. (instrumental)
7. Let it Die on the 4th of July
8. Legends
9. (instrumental)
10. Bad Person
11. weakness-strength
12. (instrumental)
13. Champion
14. (instrumental)

The real highlights here are the disc's few instrumental ambient/experimental/noise tracks, from the walls of wah of the album's short ninth track to the disc's mellow 12-minute ethereal closer, each creating an interesting, highly textured sonic landscape through processed guitars sometimes accompanied by more straightforward melodic elements. The majority of the album, however, consists of droning, minimalist ethereal rock compositions that fall somewhere between SoulWhirlingSomewhere and Red House Painters, albeit less musically complex and accomplished than either, accompanied by layered vocals that range from low-pitched drones ("Bad Person") to wobbly off-key deliveries ("Out of Air").

Most tracks are love songs, sometimes inspired by literature or film and some darker than others, void of choruses and bridges, often consisting merely of simple two-chord progressions that span the entire length of the song. Some wallow in their minimalism, while others are highlighted by sparse-but-interesting ethereal guitar and noise production touches, for instance the lovely delayed ambient guitar work at the end of "The One I've Been Waiting For". The most unique among these songs are "weakness-strength", the only track on the album to feature keyboard and percussive loops, and "Legends", perhaps the most rhythmically interesting vocal rock track here.

Overall, Remora's Enamored is bit overly simplistic and rough around the edges. The disc's instrumental compositions are quite good and well produced, proving to be Remora's strong suit. However, its more traditional ethereal rock material is far less impressive, with somewhat unpolished performances as well as sometimes bland and repetitive stripped down song structures and melodies. Perhaps a more cohesive blend of the two styles, rather than a disc made up of separate musical entities, would have been a happy medium. However, Enamored is, instead, a somewhat uneven offering. While obviously flawed and, as a whole, not particularly exceptional, indie music lovers able to overlook Enamored's shortcomings may find the charm in Remora's very simplistic ethereal rock and more interesting experimental/noise outings.