Roman Ruins : Homebuilding

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/romanruinshomebuilding.jpg" alt="Roman Ruins : Homebuilding" /><br /> It's not very indie rock to think about starting a family and settling down, but when Graham Hill found himself in...
Roman Ruins : Homebuilding
7.4 Gold Robot
2012 

Roman Ruins : Homebuilding It’s not very indie rock to think about starting a family and settling down, but when 31-year-old Graham Hill of Roman Ruins found himself in the middle of touring Europe with a son on the way, his latest album Homebuilding started coming together.  Hill is trained as an architect, but unlike physical construction this project is a contemplative, slowly revealing album of layered, subtle electronics and airy vocals.  It’s closely related to Panda Bear’s similarly atmospheric, family inspired tracks (QRO album review) about four walls and adobe slats, and Hill is also exploring the very adult ideas of providing in a committed relationship.  Then again, maybe that’s the next generation of bearded indie rock.

The first track, "Mighty Love", is a typical example of Roman Ruin’s use of uncommon elements; a static high pitch beep from an answering machine plays over the pounding of jogging feet on gravel, slowly turning into a stacked layer of nontraditional percussion, influenced by ancient polyrhythmic tribal sounds as it takes cues from the crunchy rhythm of the even steps.  Hill’s understated Brian Wilson harmony whisper sets the contemplative, internal tone of the record.  Through subtle, shifting rhythms, he’s composed a slowly moving, unified experience, and it isn’t hard to see how it directly relates to his journey back home.  Throughout Homebuilding Hill introduces every variation of breathy harmony and atmosphere, working in a sort of internal dream space.  Faster tempo tracks like "Lights Out" shift into trance inspired grooves with heavily electronic sounds, but never pull towards the dance floor, instead approaching these mechanical inhuman elements with a gentle hand, relying on the unmistakable sounds of circuitry and exploiting it’s inherent strengths.  Like any great relationship, he’s fallen in love with those imperfections. 

"Mother’s Day" makes way for more heavily manipulated Postal Service sounds and an attempt at making an honest woman of the auto-tune effect.  This celebratory sounding track about missing his mother and wife uses more of his trademark shards of broken background harmonies in an effort to match the glitches and synth melodies, effortlessly keeping it in an ambient pop place. 

The fragmented rings on the cover evoke Hill’s Venn diagram of family; nothing is isolated and the overlapping ways relationships connect, there isn’t anything that escapes each other’s influence.  Homebuilding is about becoming adult, starting to look outwards, thinking about that larger picture and leaving more selfish pursuits behind.  Like the spiraling record groove, home building doesn’t end when the needle leaves the last track on the turntable. 

MP3 Stream: "Mighty Love"

{audio}/mp3/files/Roman Ruins – Mighty Love.mp3{/audio}

Categories
Album Reviews
  • Anonymous
    at
  • No Comment

    Leave a Reply

    Album of the Week