There are times when solo and side projects can be remarkably revealing regarding the musical depth of the players involved in them. As a textbook example of that statement, listen to Retribution Gospel Choir’s debut for even five minutes and hear Low mastermind Alan Sparhawk abandon slowcore and step into the brave new world (for him anyway) of grunge with a couple of his friends. The ghosts of the mid-nineties underground manifest immediately in the mid-paced, scruffy but delicate and loose opener “They Knew You Well” (where Sparhawk sounds eerily like Greg Dulli on the mic) and that feel becomes a recurring motif from there on out.
As Sparhawk, Low compatriot Matt Livingston and Eric Pollard amble through the ominous, dissonant and dimly-lit scrap yard of RGC’s debut, they hold each forgotten, cigarette-singed underground monument that they find up for their listeners’ approval and it’s an incredibly addictive thing to hear; it’s impossible not to want to trip through the jagged, attenuated terrain with them and bask in the thematic shadows in tracks like “Take Your Time” and “Destroyer”. Elsewhere, in songs including “Breaker”, “Somebody’s Someone” and “What She Turned Into” the band beautifully manufactures a fatigued (in the metallurgical arts sense) and brushed plate metal portrait of life and living it that’s oddly attractive in its state of disrepair. It’s a beauty that’s difficult to qualify, but easy to lose oneself in.
RGC is, to its credit, instantly more spry than Low and the strains here are noticeably more rockist in a Twilight Singers sort of way with Sparhawk’s guitar driving rather than simply lending emotive ambiance.
By all indications, there’s little chance that Retribution Gospel Choir will be more than Alan Sparhawk’s enjoyable distraction from Low and that is truly a pity. If the band decides to keep producing though and future releases hold even a fraction of the impact, Retribution Gospel Choir deserves more attention than simply being relegated to ‘side project’ status; it fleshes out more emotional depth and does it better as well as being more generally adventurous than anything Low has ever done.
For more information, check out: www.retributiongospelchoir.com and www.myspace.com/retributiongospelchoir
