Curling dive into the depths of their third album ‘No Guitar,’ a frenetic, passion-fueled indie rock fever dream that soars, swells, and stirs the soul.

Stream: “URDoM” – Curling

For all its unrelenting angst and angularity, Curling’s third album is a stunningly soothing, visceral, and vibrant affair.

“I’ve been instructed that’s the best way that it goes while you’re lifeless to feeling,” Bernie Gelman sings, his voice a beacon of intense feeling as charged devices swarm in a uncooked fervor round him. “And holy shit, somebody must kick my ass to get again that feeling.” A minute in, and issues are already in shambles in one of the simplest ways potential. So begins No Guitar, a frenetic, passion-fueled indie rock fever dream that soars, swells, and stirs the soul.

If you happen to’ve been unhealthy at every thing
You higher strive tonguing on the ache
Each evening, these ideas erase your thoughts
And also you’ll by no means know in case your coronary heart is swinging from a sequence
It hangs
And the loneliness you’ve bought to point out them in any case
Since you’re do-M

– “URDoM,” Curling

Independently launched August 11, 2023, Curling’s No Guitar is a robust show of expertise, tenderness, and tenacity, to not point out a really welcome return to the highlight for a band we’ve lengthy beloved. Years within the making, No Guitar follows 5 years after 2018’s sophomore album Positively Band, which Atwood Journal had the respect of premiering. “[Curling] incorporate various influences to create their very own sound that’s rooted in power-pop, however stretches out into ’60s pop, math rock, and psychedelia,” Atwood’s James Crowley noticed on the time, praising Curling for locating their very own area of interest whereas including that the document is “influenced by everybody from American Soccer and My Bloody Valentine to Led Zeppelin and The Byrds, all of these items fall neatly into place…”

Curling’s major members – Bay Space-based Bernie Gelman and Tokyo, Japan-based Jojo Brandel – seem to have delved deeper into the worlds of math rock, indie people, and various rock over the previous few years, nevertheless their music stays an earnest and unapologetic cross-genre endeavor – masking every thing “from power-pop’s punchy bittersweetness and rustling indie-folk to the openhearted intricacy of Midwestern emo.”

No Guitar is a “labor of affection” that begins the place Curling’s final album ended, and finds the band peeling again traumas and scars as they delve not solely into their sound, but in addition into themselves.

“Curling information by no means actually appear to take form till they’re nearly completed,” Gelman and Brandel inform Atwood Journal. “We began engaged on No Guitar in 2018 with a small batch of songs (which later ended up as ‘Shamble,’ ‘Pastoral,’ ‘URDoM,’ and ‘Reflector Mage’) that we recorded to tape. These sat round for some time and we ended up attempting to do a couple of unreleased tracks late in 2019. Bernie really came upon that his dad had handed away whereas we had been within the recording studio. Between that traumatic occasion and COVID occurring solely a few months later, we weren’t in a position to get collectively as a band once more till 2021. By that time, Jojo had almost forgotten the way to play guitar! It took some time to get again into the groove and we ended up simply enjoying so much on acoustic guitars. The pandemic actually pushed us right into a a lot darker course and, regardless of the power and brightness of the singles that we launched (‘Hello-Elixir,’ ‘Endurance,’ and ‘URDoM’), nearly all of the album is much more acoustic-based and introspective.”

“No Guitar is consultant of 5 years of labor and ache for us,” they add. “It’s an album that’s extraordinarily vibrant on the floor, however with out being saccharine. It’s a fantastically recorded and produced snapshot of the place we’ve been at these previous 5 years: all the time eclectic and spontaneous, nonetheless a bit neurotic.

The album’s title isn’t meant to be deceptive, however one would simply be forgiven for considering the group had performed a little bit trick on them: Opening monitor “Shambles” does, in truth, begin with a keyboard line and a rapture of drums, nevertheless it takes lower than a minute for jangling, dramatic electrical guitars to take their rightful place on the core of Curling’s sound.

The band clarify the title as extra of a guiding mild and a brand new ethos, moderately than a literal message. “’No Guitar’ was an early impetus for us after we had been attempting to write down new songs; it was a type of directive that we thought may push us in new sonic instructions. Clearly, we didn’t succeed a lot in sticking to that directive. Nonetheless, it appeared like a cool title: “Curling no guitar” in Japanese mainly interprets to “Curling’s guitar” (which might have in all probability been a extra acceptable title!) and it additionally harkens again to a phrase Bernie’s dad would usually yell when he was youthful and can be attempting to follow guitar late at evening.”

Hey, don’t lose that longing
Elevate up your head
There may be life throughout, can’t you see?
I’d wish to take you by the hand, particularly when
You already know that’s not the way it goes
And you can’t take again what you’ve by no means had

Adored, my love
Now that you simply’re gone to sleep
Adorned, effortlessly
Took a lifetime to know that you simply’re searching for a thrill
Tied down for a lullaby

Highlights abound on No Guitar as Curling ship a smorgasbord of rollicking highs, ruminative lows, and every thing in-between.

Among the finest elements of this document is its lack of – or moderately, full rejection of – conventional “pop”-style preparations. Only a few, if any of its songs comply with a verse-chorus construction; as an alternative, every monitor flows fluidly, all the time attending to the place it must go due to the duo’s natural strategy to songwriting. The result’s an album filled with surprises and sonic left-turns; you by no means know the place Curling are going to take you subsequent, however you may as well belief of their instincts to craft a fascinating, enthralling journey.

From the fantastically raucous “Hello-Elixir” and the glistening, immersive “URDoM,” to the brooding “Pop Track” and the cathartic sonic spectacle “Endurance,” Curling maintain nothing again in embracing the complete spectrum of sound and emotion. In reviewing “Endurance” upon its launch, Atwood Journal hailed it as a heavy and heated give up: “Intimately intense and totally unrelenting, “Endurance” roars with uncooked ardour and charged power as Curling unravel in a radiant, visceral reckoning.”

It’s not a love track. Not but.
Don’t be outlined by these chains
while you notice disgrace:
That you simply’re enamored with ache.
Simply take a while to understand
That you can be pleased.
That you can be something.

Every of Curling’s founders has his personal favourite moments on the album as effectively.

“‘Husk,’ for certain,” Gelman smiles, citing the document’s achingly emotive third-to-last track. “I like the harmonium and 12-string textures and the weird rhythms. It’s such a terrific track and I’m so pleased that Jojo shared it with me.”

You’re the husk of a pony right this moment
Ethereal within the window out this dimension
If I may discover you with these phrases, I’d speak
Outdoors of my minds 4 steel partitions

I do know it could possibly’t get higher, all of this time residing within the hole of you
You might be simply an empty husk. I’ve been misplaced
Endlessly chasing what I’m not. Endlessly

Have been you on this life to know?
Have been you on this life void of all character?
If I may discover you with these phrases, I’d speak
Outdoors of my thoughts’s 4 steel partitions

– “Husk,” Curling

“‘Husk’ and ‘Resort’ are two of the ultimate tracks on No Guitar they usually’re additionally probably the most private songs we’ve ever recorded,” Gelman continues. “‘Husk’ lyrically offers with an occasion the place Jojo was deserted by his associate throughout a weak time. ‘You might be simply an empty husk, I’ve been misplaced, endlessly chasing what I’m not.’”

“‘Resort’ is a track that I (Bernie) wrote after my dad handed away. It’s in regards to the feeling while you by no means actually felt that you simply had been ‘seen’ for who you might be by somebody that you simply care about. Jojo helped me write the road “I attempt to give a love, however I’m by no means discovered” and it hits laborious. It’s additionally a kind of stunning juxtaposition to Jojo’s lyrics from ‘Husk.’”

Because it occurs, “Resort” is Brandel’s favourite monitor. “Bernie’s vocals are haunting on this one and the guitar solo hits an emotional excessive for me,” he says.

Evidently, there’s so much to like within the limitless ebbs and flows of No Guitar.

Sure, there are many guitars, and sure, there’s a superb quantity of dysfunction (together with a gorgeously non-dysfunctional track titled “Dysfunction,”) however at its coronary heart, No Guitar is an eccentric, deeply human and heartfelt document.

Typically I’m a lover of all my dysfunction
I’ll index all of the sharp spots and run my finger by way of
I’ll tie the blades in little knots
Once more they irritate me and I am keen on them nonetheless

“We hope listeners will take the time to take heed to the entire album from begin to end,” Curling share. “We put a whole lot of effort into the sequencing and movement of our information and it’s laborious to only take heed to a handful of songs and get the massive image, particularly for the reason that type and temper of the music adjustments so usually. We hope everybody who heard this album can join with it and discover moments and sonic sweet to maintain returning to time and again for a very long time!”

“For us, ending this document has made us really feel invincible. If we are able to get by way of the entire crap that we’ve gotten by way of and nonetheless make an album this nice, we are able to do something!”

Expertise the complete document through our under stream, and peek inside Curling’s No Guitar with Atwood Journal as Bernie Gelman and Jojo Brandel take us track-by-track by way of the music and lyrics of their third album!

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Stream: ‘No Guitar’ – Curling

:: Inside No Guitar ::

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Shamble

The whole lot about this track was fairly shambolic. It was one of many first songs that we recorded for this album. Jojo’s guitar half is in a unique tuning for the second half of the track, so the track was recorded in two elements after which later sewn collectively. From the sonic collage at the start of the track to the celebratory horns ornamenting the tip (and accompanying lyric merely stating “breathe out/nothing”), every thing on this track is filled with accidents, errors, and pure chaos that by some means got here collectively within the studio. It’s type of emblematic of your complete album, in that manner!

Pastoral

This was Bernie’s greatest try and seize the 12-string shimmer and jangle of previous XTC albums. The chord adjustments are type of uncommon and the strings that are available in on the midway level are supposed to be actually shocking! Whereas the melody is type of candy, this track is sung from a kind of petulant perspective of somebody who’s leaving a relationship, it’s filled with that venom and unchained malice.

Pop Track

This can be a track Jojo wrote in spring 2018 in Japan after getting a voicemail from his temp-company boss in LA that he was getting laid off. The track sat round as an concept for a very long time–it was too emo, not fascinating sufficient and in actuality Jojo was fairly pleased to get laid off, go away his life in LA and transfer again to Japan. In 2022 he lastly wrote a bridge to finish the track and encapsulate the true ironic sentiment of the track: getting fired was really the perfect factor to occur to him in 2018.

URDoM

Jojo wrote this track only a few months after writing Pop Track and is in the identical vein of breezy emo tunes which might be secretly deeply sarcastic. The title comes from one thing his unhinged coworker in Japan screamed at him in entrance of everybody else within the workplace as a joke after messing up with a shopper. “Do M” in Japan means to be a masochist, or somebody who enjoys ache. Like Pop Track, he failed to complete the track for 4 years, however Bernie and Jojo had been in a position to end the vocal melody and lyrics only a week earlier than their final recording date in 2022.

Reflector Mage

The construction of this track is an extended chord development carried out twice in two very totally different kinds. The primary half of the track is a really sluggish, very somber stroll by way of self-loathing and loneliness, whereas the second half kicks into an nearly Jimmy Eat World-esque emo anthem with extra triumphant-but-resigned lyrics whereas the guitars bash away at full tilt.

Dysfunction

This track is a whole studio creation constructed from lyrics borrowed from Jojo’s buddy Fernando, Jojo and Bernie’s interweaving acoustic guitars, a mish-mash of drum takes from Kynwyn, a synth loop made by Bernie, a suggestions loop that Jojo made that gave the impression of a horse, a conga loop made despatched from Japan from their buddy Akio Jeimus and a whole lot of laborious work on engineer Ian Pellicci’s finish to connect the entire thing collectively. Just like the dysfunctional association, the lyrics encapsulate Jojo’s whiskey-fueled days in Japan throughout COVID, leaping off of buildings, doing zoom conferences beneath bridges whereas bike tenting round Japan and usually leaning into the pleasure of 1’s personal dysfunction.

Majesty

Bernie wrote this track as a candy lullaby for Jojo’s brother’s then-unborn first baby. The lyrics are kind of recommendation to a brand new mum or dad (“keep by her aspect when the world’s gone too darkish/take heed to her craving”) with a fantastic string quartet association accompanying the Beatlesque melody. We actually wished to write down a terrific, soft-toned ballad with a compelling melody and this track match the invoice completely.

Hello-Elixir

Bernie’s dad handed away on the finish of 2019 after which the pandemic occurred only some months later, so we had been in a fairly darkish place whereas penning this one. Bernie wrote this track late one evening sitting in the home he grew up in. He had the melody and chords and was fighting lyrics till he regarded over and noticed his canine, Lily, peacefully napping. The track is a reassuring lullaby to his canine companion and a mirrored image on not dwelling in distress.

Musically, we had been aiming for a 2-and-a-half-minute powerpop mini-symphony full of surprising chords and key adjustments, kind of like Penny Lane. There’s an enormous shoegazey lead guitar hook bookending the track and a whole lot of cool little guitar elements buried in there as ear sweet that can stick out on repeated listens.

Endurance

Endurance was initially a track Jojo had written with a a lot slower tempo and simply the primary verse. The lyrics ended up morphing right into a type of story about BDSM and the concept of taking pleasure in ache. The start verse says that it’s “not a love track” and that “you’re enamored with ache.” By the tip of the track, the lyrics get flipped round a bit and say “you’re enamored with disgrace.”

There’s really no “regular” bass guitar on this track till the primary refrain; the bizarre higher-pitched synth-sounding instrument throughout the first a part of the track is definitely extremely processed electrical bass! This track was one of many highest power performances from Kynwyn, she’s actually bashing away at her drums.

Husk

This track was written in late 2020 and impressed by a hellish journey to Okinawa (the place Jojo’s mother grew up) the place Jojo bought tremendous fucked up and ended up locked inside a love resort with horrific fairytale wallpaper. He almost jumped out of the window of the sixth flooring to flee.

This track was our first time utilizing a harmonium within the studio and it rapidly turned one in all our favourite sounds (and ended up all around the remainder of the album!). The primary part the place the drums are available in has a surprisingly misleading cadence the place the downbeat is rarely fairly the place you count on it to be, kind of mirroring Jojo’s disoriented state that impressed the track.

Resort

That is one other track that began off with some chords that Jojo had written. Bernie had a unique half that ended up being the refrain/guitar solo, so we sewed the 2 songs collectively. Lyrically, this track is about Bernie’s relationship together with his dad, who died on the finish of 2019. It’s about spending your life attempting to make significant connections with somebody, however all the time lacking the mark. When somebody is gone, you don’t have that probability any extra. The guitar solo was carried out by way of Bernie’s dad’s previous Fifties amplifier that he purchased to play accordion at Bar Mitzvahs when he was a child.

No Guitar

No Guitar was initially speculated to be the primary Curling album the place we diverged from writing songs with guitars. That positively didn’t occur, however No Guitar the track was a final ditch effort to acknowledge the unique idea with a foolish track made with a bunch of synthesizers, fuzz pedals and loopers.

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