"i thought i saw you crawl back for more"
Calla is a conundrum. Their music is quiet, moody, madman musings. It’s also explosive waves of sound that rival the Cure in their Disintegration period. The usual suspects are evident here: Joy Division, Death Cab, Pixies, Leonard Cohen-style creepiness. They also have a rock sensibility reminiscent of the Afghan Whigs. But Calla is more than the sum of their parts.
Some tracks on their new CD, Televised, are strong and quiet, like a bouncer that you know wants to kick your ass, but can’t while people are looking. "Strangler" is a breathy, creeping, layered attack on your ears, with hungry guitars underneath the latticework, playing with your emotions— like a madman in the corner whispering to you. The percussion in "Monument" sounds like it’s under water, and the tonal guitars remind me of a slow-motion harem dance. "Astral" drifts in slow like the tide, the drums muted, presenting a dreamy walk through the desert on peyote. "Don’t Hold Your Breath" finally delivers on the promise of explosion, the brooding bass line and barely decipherable lyrics morphing into a chaos of noise that brings a big release. "Televise" has a more conventional rock feel, with drums pounding the whole time and the waves of sound washing up on your beach constantly, letting you sink into the wet sand.
The rest of the album holds to this formula, and the CD is perfect for the end of the night, or the next morning when you’re coming down from a trip. It’s a masterpiece of moodiness and despair and unfulfilled promises. The only disappointment was that the songs never exploded like I wanted them to. There were many opportunities when the tension was so high that letting it go would have felt so damn good.
But maybe I just didn’t have my stereo turned up loud enough. When I saw them at the Mercury Lounge they were throbbing and intense, manipulating everyone’s emotions in the packed house. The sound was rawer, more emotional, and it enveloped me, moving my pulse and echoing around inside my soul. Their full-on explosions countered the sparseness of their songs. They work the silence very well.
Reminding me of a Massive Attack with guitars (the way they tiptoe around you until you’re dizzy and then begin increasing the volume to overwhelm you), Calla is not in it for the short haul. They have crafted a very good album, and an even better new music. They were phenomenal live, and if the CD brings you to the brink of their world, the live show is when they kick you screaming into it.