365 Days of Metal: The Great Sparrow Campaign

Apologies for the lapse over the weekend - it was slightly crazy but I still live.

I've also almost finished migrating old content over to the new 365 Days of Metal blog over on Tumblr. So go and give it a gander, because soon everything new on this blog will be over there.


Day 112

Red Sparowes - Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun

Band Origin: Los Angeles, California, USA

Genre: Post-metal / Post-rock
Label: Sargent House
Running Time: 62 minutes 
Release Date: September 19, 2006

Best Part: Concept is very richly rooted in the track titles and the musical evolution between each track on the record.

Favorite Tracks: "Like the Howling Glory of the Darkest Winds, This Voice Was Thunderous and the Words Holy, Tangling Their Way Around Our Hearts and Clutching Our Innocent Awe.", "Millions Starved and We Became Skinnier and Skinnier, While Our Leaders Became Fatter and Fatter.", and "The Great Leap Forward Poured Down Upon Us One Day Like a Mighty Storm, Suddenly and Furiously Blinding Our Senses."

Grade: 5

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Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun in way more than 20 words or less: 

Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun is the second full-length release by the Los Angeles instrumental post super-group, and is a concept album centered around the Great sparrow campaign carried out in China between 1958 and 1962.

The Band: 

Red Sparowes is a five piece post-metal/rock band from Los Angeles which was created in 2003 as a side project by former Isis guitarist Bryant Clifford-Meyer and guitarist/bassist Jeff Caxide, Halifax Pier bassist and pedal steel guitarist Greg Burns, guitarist and pianist Josh Graham of Neurosis and drummer Dana Berkowitz. Red Sparowes was built around the soundscapes of featured in Caxide and Clifford-Meyer's work with Isis but also with influences from other members' primary projects, and outside post driven influences such as Pelican, Sonic Youth and The Cure. The band has featured a number of member changes, primarily with Caxide and Berkowitz being forced to leave the group when they relocated from LA. The band continues to create purely instrumental arrangements which walk the line between post-rock and post-metal.

Red Sparowes' other releases include: At the Soundless Dawn (2005), and The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer (2010) 

Jay's Take on Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun: 

Red Sparowes is a band that has been comprised of a rich field of talent in the post-metal/rock genre since its original founding as a side project in 2003. Of the three releases that the band has made to date, Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun is by far their most interesting as it is a concept album which delves into an important moment in history and is conveyed solely through the music and the titles of each track. The story is built around China's Great Leap Forward which was essentially Chairman Mao Zedong's social and economic plan to raise China into the next modern communist society. One of the first and major actions in this strategy was the Four Pests Campaign, also known as The Great Sparrow Campaign which targeted sparrows in particular because of their habit of eating grain seeds, which the campaign claimed as being a robbery of the peoples hard labor. The resulting extermination of sparrows, their nests and eggs would result in a major ecological upset that would effect the region for years as no sparrows remained to eat locusts and other insects which feasted on crops. The Campaign is credited as being an unnecessary catalyst in the famine which would ravage China during those same years, causing nearly 40 million deaths.

History lesson aside, Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun tells this story in gradual stages, as can be deciphered from the very long and specific track titles. Each track follows the tradition post-metal/rock format with somewhat slow building and pulsing drives, building up to a louder, more prominent and vibrant crescendo. With the average track time ranging from seven to 10 minutes long, the feeling of the evolution between the more subdued and shallow drives is more than exacerbated up to the point where the music shifts into a higher tempo, and more powerful swing - and even down shifting to once again build up to a second, more resounding high point. Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun is a necessary listen if you are a fan of anything post, and more importantly are a fan of instrumental music in general.

Sample of the Day: 

 

- J