The New Music

Bear In Heaven Beast Rest Forth Mouth [Hometapes]

Year end lists might be dominated by a grizzlier band, but Bear In Heaven’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth has come out of hibernation as a late contender.

Though members originate from the unlikely zones of Alabama and Georgia, the quartet’s second album was actually recorded in Brooklyn, go figure. And although there are many things working for a comparison to Grizzly Bear, they really do end at simply calling both bands masters of ornately arranging songs and creeping out lingering melodies.

Bear In Heaven emit the type of warm, vivid sounds that demand Technicolor shapes ebbing and flowing on a screen - like the trippy ones that accompanied the DVD version of The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

The songs on Beast Rest Forth Mouth are structured with enough elasticity to fit their tangent-heavy, prog tendencies. So elaborate are the arrangements that it becomes difficult actually sitting back and taking it all in; the first impulse is to try and dissect everything they’re laying down, which is a little bit of everything.

The oscillating keyboards on “Lovesick Teenagers” pique your ears, but it’s singer Jon Philpot’s pensive vocals and the sprawling layers that help the chorus soar into an ethereal paradise. “Deafening Love,” on the other hand, banishes that blissful release with an ominous tone that borders on the black metallic kind; all the elements converge and then re-emerge as one heavy, dark cloud.

“Wholehearted Mess” putters with a Krautrock motor, installing a motorik beat to keep the decorative, psychedelic flourishes on track to evolve into the swelling ascension of “You Do You.” “Dust Cloud,” meanwhile, gets in on Cocteau Twins’ patented guitar chimes, detuning them for added discombobulating effect.

As a send-off, Bear In Heaven revisit “Lovesick Teenagers” on “Casual Goodbye,” piling on polyrhythms, gurgling synths, spiralling guitar and beguiling harmonies. Considering the original is the heart of the album, it’s a bold move that pays off but adding dense, fluctuating layers that turn it into a fond farewell instead of a gimmick.

Like Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective, Bear In Heaven have devised a sound completely their own. Beast Rest Forth Mouth may not receive all of the year end attention as those peers, but rest assured for them, it’s destined to become one of 2009’s best-kept secrets and something that will age with undying grace.

Rating: A

- Cam Lindsay