RFC Review: Timber Timbre

Over the summer, I was sitting outside of Reggie's Music Joint drinking a beer and talking with a friend about the new music that we'd respectively been spinning. I'd been rattling off my summer favorites Bad Veins and Dawes when he asked if I'd heard of Timber Timbre. I hadn't, so he extracted his iPod from his bag and played me "Demon Host", the first track off of the band's just released self titled album. I was immeadiately reminded of Ryan Gosling's new project, Dead Man's Bones, with the evocative, spooky overtones of the songs and within days, had procured myself a copy of the disc.

Upon further listening, I discovered the similarities to Dead Man's Bones weren't baseless, although Timber Timbre seems to lie somewhere in the ether between Gosling's vaudeville project and the acoustic musings of M. Ward's earlier, pre-Monsters of Folk work, only with significantly more horrific lyrics.

Timber Timbre - Demon Host

When Dead Man's Bones released their debut, it was nearly doubtless that it had won the non-existent "Creepiest Record of the Year" award but the Canadian Timber Timbre seems to have stolen the honor out from under them. Instead of using a children's choir, Timber Timbre refuses to go for charm or kitsch, their subtle melodies coupled with lyrics that up the spook factor by utilizing creeping insects, benevolent spirits, and seances with every frightful word juxtaposed against a hushed and atmospheric melody, making the record the perfect soundtrack for the autumn chill.

"Demon Host" sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album, it's delicate guitar and hooky choir of "Oh, oh, oh"s balanced with imagery of the grim reaper, ghosts and the titular demon. From there, we get "Lay Down in the Tall Grass", which starts off slightly reminiscent of Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You" but soon gives way to a more romantic melody and lyrics about a shallow grave and the narrator's decomposed body. Even the most romantic track on the disc, "We'll Find Out", evokes memories of Frankenstein with lyrics like "You could not accept the fate of 3,000 volts through you". The album comes in a bit short at simply 8 tracks but with a run time of near an hour, the album doesn't seem too brief in the least. After hearing Timber Timbre, you'll have to fight the urge to digest the bands previous two albums in the same sitting.

Creeping insects. benevolent spirits, and seances all make an appearance lyrically but the talent exhibitied on Timber Timbre keeps the project from devolving to the "creepy novelty act" group that Dead Man's Bones seems to have been lumped into.