Igloomag.com reviews “Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles
Musician, artist and greengrocer Damian Valles enjoyed a bumper year in 2011 (highlighted by the birth of a healthy baby boy). He released two mini-CDs, a full-length, and rounded off his stint as curator of the admirable “Rural Route” mini-CD series. Most of the entries in said series can be characterized as ambient, as can his three-inch releases. Old Tin Will Cry (Twisted Tree) is divided into two parts, the first of which, “Cold Working,” goes round and round in pleasant circles like a finger in the snow. The second, “Phase Transition,” lifts the gaze upward to take in the green metallic sheen of northern lights in dub, their echo thrown back by the pure white surface underfoot. The Waves That Destroy (Hibernate) is a single, twenty-minute piece, and it is the one that actually sounds like old tin crying, or at least having tears well up in its eyes in the bitter cold. Valles expands the drone to orchestral proportions, as his field recordings, small bells, piano and guitar are all swept up into a string section, with a violin swirling out of the mass to solo half-way through before receding. The entire piece is far from destructive, but is rich in drama. Skeleton Taxa is far from ambient, as it is too chock full of distractions to be undistracting—of hazy Byzantine ritual (“Ascent of the Past”), of lonesome nights hunkered down by the HAM radio in northern woods, of big-city minimalism (“Nightengale Floors”), attic-dusty country blues records, lavish quasi-exotica (“With a Lark’s Tongue End”), a dour, skirling dirge (“Elegant Skull”). It even features a song, “Bell and Arc,” sung by his wife Heidi Hazelton. With a voice sharing some of the lilt of Annie Haslam and with Valles’ lush arrangement, it calls to mind Renaissance, the British progressive rock band. It is an aural curiousity cabinet, the whole somehow greater than the sum of its parts (for there are a few pieces of fool’s gold among the gems). The ear enjoys wandering over it. original article
Pop Matters offers up 2 cents on Damian Valles’ ‘Skeleton Taxa’
Valles has been jumping from one genre to another––math rock, post-rock, ambient, punk––for more than a decade now. The Canadian musician has landed on something that feels like ambient, but which he says is more concerned with structured tunes and melodies—song stuff—than his past solo stuff. How is it? At times reminiscent of the dark, spooky stuff put together by Norway’s Ulver, albeit without the overwhelmingly depressive edge, the record’s perfect in its ambient ambitions, and pretty good otherwise. “Bell and Arc”, which features vocals from Valles’ wife Heidi Hazelton, is inarguably the best here and makes you wish there were one or two more like it.
Future Sequence reviews “Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles
Although his seventh release, Skeleton Taxa is Canadian experimental artist Damian Valles’ first full length CD ‘proper’. Having more recently been exploring ambient and drone aesthetics in a string of limited CDrs, digital releases and compilations (not to mention the first Rural Route edition which he curates) this album sees Valles retain these components, but also reprise the sound sources he established in early work ‘Count(r)ies’ (2009). Released on Under The Spire, the album charted the artists’ migration from big city to small town in Ontario, and the resulting experiences of the quieter lifestyle. Two years later, Skeleton Taxa feels like a culmination of Valles’ sonic experiments, achieving something quite special.
Taxa is the plural of ‘taxon’ which is defined as a group of organisms. ‘Skeleton Taxa’ then, in this context is a number of groups of skeletons. The amorphous skeleton is at our physical core; without the differentiating elements such as skin, hair, eye colour, facial structure that make up our unique identities. Whilst it’s not made explicit, Valles could well be concerning himself with the subject of death and what lies after it, certainly it is our bones that last beyond our conscious/waking life. A potentially morbid topic, but is of course perpetually captivating by its very definition.
There is structure to these pieces that approaches ‘song’ patterns. Even with the wider range of instrumentation – be that piano, guitar, synthesiser, drone or recording – Valles establishes a collage effect, stitched together with an embedded unrest but consistency of style. So rich is the soundscape that its difficult to paraphrase the work by any genre, each track reveals new treasures; juxtaposition of electronic tones against piano or guitar, worn drones contrasted with clatterings of objects in a room or as in ‘Bell and Arc’ the voice of the artists’ wife Heidi.
‘Collapse Process’ features a piano that sounds like it may be pinned, the reverberations from the instrument allowing extended life through effects so that the notes build into a droning back drop like vapourous ghosts. The post-mortem recording over ‘Calavera’ (Spanish for ‘skull’) has an antique air to it, a lurching menacing melody keeps a funeral bell march rhythm, Valles adds atonal violin and more and more sounds like an investigation of all parts of the body.
With a dynamic tonal and textural range Valles shows here that he is a master of his art, creating an ever shifting, ever unpredictable journey. ‘Skeleton Taxa’ is a beautifully rendered work defying categorisation, encapsulating the exploration of sound and challenging our notion of humanity within its duration.
Although his seventh release, Skeleton Taxa is Canadian experimental artist Damian Valles’ first full length CD ‘proper’. Having more recently been exploring ambient and drone aesthetics in a string of limited CDrs, digital releases and compilations (not to mention the first Rural Route edition which he curates) this album sees Valles retain these components, but also reprise the sound sources he established in early work ‘Count(r)ies’ (2009). Released on Under The Spire, the album charted the artists’ migration from big city to small town in Ontario, and the resulting experiences of the quieter lifestyle. Two years later, Skeleton Taxa feels like a culmination of Valles’ sonic experiments, achieving something quite special.
Taxa is the plural of ‘taxon’ which is defined as a group of organisms. ‘Skeleton Taxa’ then, in this context is a number of groups of skeletons. The amorphous skeleton is at our physical core; without the differentiating elements such as skin, hair, eye colour, facial structure that make up our unique identities. Whilst it’s not made explicit, Valles could well be concerning himself with the subject of death and what lies after it, certainly it is our bones that last beyond our conscious/waking life. A potentially morbid topic, but is of course perpetually captivating by its very definition.
There is structure to these pieces that approaches ‘song’ patterns. Even with the wider range of instrumentation – be that piano, guitar, synthesiser, drone or recording – Valles establishes a collage effect, stitched together with an embedded unrest but consistency of style. So rich is the soundscape that its difficult to paraphrase the work by any genre, each track reveals new treasures; juxtaposition of electronic tones against piano or guitar, worn drones contrasted with clatterings of objects in a room or as in ‘Bell and Arc’ the voice of the artists’ wife Heidi.
‘Collapse Process’ features a piano that sounds like it may be pinned, the reverberations from the instrument allowing extended life through effects so that the notes build into a droning back drop like vapourous ghosts. The post-mortem recording over ‘Calavera’ (Spanish for ‘skull’) has an antique air to it, a lurching menacing melody keeps a funeral bell march rhythm, Valles adds atonal violin and more and more sounds like an investigation of all parts of the body.
With a dynamic tonal and textural range Valles shows here that he is a master of his art, creating an ever shifting, ever unpredictable journey. ‘Skeleton Taxa’ is a beautifully rendered work defying categorisation, encapsulating the exploration of sound and challenging our notion of humanity within its duration.
Textura reviews Damian Valles “Skeleton Taxa”
Currently residing in the Kawartha region east of Toronto, Ontario, Damian Valles has toiled in his share of bands—punk, post-hardcore, math rock, and otherwise—during the last decade. The past couple of years, however, have found him concentrating on solo recordings and establishing himself within the experimental ambient-soundscaping community. And though Skeleton Taxa is his seventh release to date, it’s formally his first proper full-length CD, as the recordings issued before were CD-Rs, a cassette, two netlabel releases, and compilation appearances. Two things stand out right away: the relative concision of Skeleton Taxa’s twelve pieces (with one exception, all are in the two- to four-minute range), and, secondly, the stylistic variety of the material. Despite the contrast instated by the latter and the fact that the album’s a patchwork of sorts (in his own words, “Some of the tracks have been sitting dormant for months to years, some are reworked tracks from a previous life, and some are fresh out of the box”), Skeleton Taxa nonetheless ends up sounding like a cohesive collection, perhaps due to the omnipresent guitar. In addition, one is struck by the number of pieces that favour a format closer in spirit to conventional song structure than open-ended drone or meditation. The album gets off to an auspicious start with “Bones Made Out of Bone,” a rustic setting that sounds like it was recorded at a forest cabin, with nature sounds seeping in amongst the scrapes and primitive instrument sounds. The tremolo twang of “Storm Doors” follows, with drama created by ringing cymbal patterns and an insistent, metronomic pulse. Adding to the material’s textural character, voice samples and field recordings are threaded into the pieces, such as when orchestral elements and what sounds like a doctor’s voice appear within “Calavera.” A few less structured pieces appear, including “Taxa,” a spikey guitar and piano exploration, and “Calacas,” a sound collage of acoustic guitar flutter, found sounds, and voices. There’s a legato character to his guitar playing in “Nightengale Floors” that evokes the fluidity of jazz guitar, while the slow plains drift of “With a Lark’s Tongue End” is presumedly Valles’ nod to King Crimson’s 1973 opus Larks’ Tongue in Aspic. Though Skeleton Taxa comes to a strong close with “Elegant Skull,” a spectral meditation speckled with scrapes and kalimba plucks, the album’s most entrancing piece is “Bell and Arc,” primarily due to the inclusion of a haunting vocal by Damian’s wife, Heidi Hazelton. Clearly the result suggests that Valles might want to consider incorporating her vocal presence to a greater degree in the future. For the time being, Skeleton Taxa provides a comprehensive portrait of his many strengths and the ease with which he’s able to adapt to different contexts.
Fluid Radio weighs in on “Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles
“I feel like it’s my most accomplished work to date. The concept behind Skeleton Taxa is as a collection of individual pieces that work better as a whole, a patchwork of sorts. Some of the tracks have been sitting dormant for months to years, some are reworked tracks from a previous life, and some are fresh out of the box; hints of traditional song compositions intertwined with sound collage that, somehow, seem to fit together to create a cohesive ‘entity’ or ‘body’.” – Damian Valles
Canadian musician, Damian Valles has been performing for more than a decade with bands that run the musical gambit from punk, post-hardcore and math rock to electronic and post-rock. Over the last two years he’s concentrated more on solo work, creating experimental ambient and drone based soundscapes.
“Skeleton Taxa”, mastered by Taylor Deupree, is Valles’ seventh release to date; his first full length CD and his first for the Drifting Falling imprint. The punk/rock guitar influence is apparent from the first track ‘Bones Made Out Of Bone’ onwards – this album is blessedly possessed of teeth, sharp ones at that. Whilst the texture in “Bones…” is one of soundscaping, the field recordings and tremelo’d guitar chords have a restrained aggression that elevates the material from run of the mill drone to something more. This is cemented by ‘Storm Doors’, angular Ennio Morricone guitar spirals with a post rock twist.
“Collapse Process” has a similar delayed guitar backdrop, multiple layers of shuddering notes waving across the speakers. Interestingly, the thing that distinguishes Valles sound from that of his contemporaries is his grasp of dynamics – whereas one might expect others to span out the tracks and highlight the drone, Valles plays with peaks and troughs and gives the album a welcome theatrical tone. The theatre is in places both sci fi (“Calvera” and “Calacas”) and dramatic (“Ascent Of The Past” and “Bell And Arc” which teeter towards the math influence mentioned in his past musical history), meaning most will find something to hook onto. There is a lot of melody if you listen closely, and there is ample reward for doing so.
Valles’ name will also be familiar to those who recently downloaded the 42 track Futuresequence compilation, having contributed the track “Court Whisperings”.
Charles Sage for Fluid Radio
Caleidoscoop reviews “Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles
Het kwaliteitslabel Drifting Falling begint zo langzamerhand met recht de hofleverancier van de dromerige muziek te worden. Ze brengen muziek uit van artiesten die ook wel op labels als Kranky, Darla, n5MD en Under The Spire zouden passen, zij het dat de dromerige factor hier altijd voorop staat en ze uit diverse genres putten. Nieuw op het label is de Canadese artiest en multi-instrumentalist Damian Valles. Hij beweegt zich al jaren in de muziekwereld op uiteenlopende wijze, van punk en hardcore tot elektronische muziek en postrock. De laatste paar jaren legt hij zich solo meer en meer toe op experimentele en atmosferische soundscapes, waarin ambient, drones, wereldse en neoklassieke elementen op eigenzinnige en prachtige wijze samensmelten. Skeleton Taxa is na diverse cd-r’s, cassette en digitale releases misschien wel zijn eerste, echte volwaardige debuut. De rode draad hierop wordt net als op zijn vorige muzikale uitlatingen gevormd door de tot de verbeelding sprekende, melancholische ingrediënten en de ambientachtige onderlaag die als een permafrost aanwezig blijft. De muziek bestaat in feite dan ook uit experimentele ambientklanklandschappen, die veelal op de gitaar gecreëerd worden en daarnaast met elektronica, piano en veldopnames. Die landschappen zijn verder samengesteld uit elektro-akoesische muziek, (stem)samples, drones, avant-garde, filmische, neoklassieke en wereldse elementen. Het resultaat is meer dan indrukwekkend te noemen. Dit heeft alles te maken met het feit dat Damian als geen ander weet hoe je een skelet van geluid(en) in elkaar dient te zetten, die hij vervolgens ook verder aankleedt. Ze waaieren uiteen als imaginaire soundtracks, bloedstollend mooie collages en uiterst intrigerende klankexperimenten. Denk aan een caleidoscopische mix van Vieo Abiungo, Spheruleus, Birds Of Passage, Human Greed, Roy Montgomery, Celer en Beaumont Hannant. In het prachtige, bijna Cocteau Twins-achtige “Bell And Arc” krijg je eenmalig de wonderschone zang van Heidi Hazelton te horen. Het geheel laat veel aan de verbeelding over, is heerlijk melancholisch en kent zowel imponerende desolate als innemende warme stukken. Een meesterlijk album!
cokemachineglow.com reviews “With A Lark’s Tongue End” by Damian Valles from Skeleton Taxa
Damian Valles: “With A Lark’s Tongue End”
From Skeleton Taxa (Drifting Falling; 2011)Canadian bit player Damian Valles must have a sideline in carpentry—it’s the one of the only ways he’d know what the term “lark’s tongue end” means. The other, the fact it’s a 1973 concept album by prog-rockers King Crimson, hasn’t resulted in either a single lute or sun god making it to Valles’ debut for Drifting Falling, Skeleton Taxa. Having cut his teeth jamming with math rock bands and then broken away into electronics, Valles’ full-length crams in everything he’s learned, overlapping ideas where necessary and sometimes achieving the Ham & Swiss effect. His steady hand throughout only serves to confirm his secret woodwork identity: if he asks anyone to piss on timber shavings in order to keep them from combusting in strong sunlight, you’ll know he’s well-trained in Benchwork.
“With A Lark’s Tongue End” combusts in its own way, spreading from cafe noises, strings, guitars, and Spaghetti Western scores to build a countdown to something momentous. Imagine Labradford equipped with castanets, or post-rock putting on flamenco trousers—it’s an original sound Valles has been honing, respectfully honouring the waitresses who wiped his table down by using saucer chinks as percussion. As mandolins bray and the track climbs and climbs then fades into tapping chopsticks, you’re left pumped and wondering what it is he was waiting for that needed such a lead-in. Probably staining some antique furniture. That paste wood filler takes ages to dry.
Canadian bit player Damian Valles must have a sideline in carpentry—it’s the one of the only ways he’d know what the term “lark’s tongue end” means. The other, the fact it’s a 1973 concept album by prog-rockers King Crimson, hasn’t resulted in either a single lute or sun god making it to Valles’ debut for Drifting Falling, Skeleton Taxa. Having cut his teeth jamming with math rock bands and then broken away into electronics, Valles’ full-length crams in everything he’s learned, overlapping ideas where necessary and sometimes achieving the Ham & Swiss effect. His steady hand throughout only serves to confirm his secret woodwork identity: if he asks anyone to piss on timber shavings in order to keep them from combusting in strong sunlight, you’ll know he’s well-trained in Benchwork.
“With A Lark’s Tongue End” combusts in its own way, spreading from cafe noises, strings, guitars, and Spaghetti Western scores to build a countdown to something momentous. Imagine Labradford equipped with castanets, or post-rock putting on flamenco trousers—it’s an original sound Valles has been honing, respectfully honouring the waitresses who wiped his table down by using saucer chinks as percussion. As mandolins bray and the track climbs and climbs then fades into tapping chopsticks, you’re left pumped and wondering what it is he was waiting for that needed such a lead-in. Probably staining some antique furniture. That paste wood filler takes ages to dry.
“Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles receives 5 stars from Norman Records
…according to our Ant on 01 September 2011.Damian Valles hasn’t been releasing solo music for a very long time. Only since around 2009 I think, however I suspect he’s been honing his sound for quite some time (in between playing in various bands over the past decade) as his previous releases on Hibernate, Under The Spire, Standard Form and now Drifting Falling are remarkably accomplished. Here Damian creates a most mysterious soundworld with a greater focus on instrumentation than on recent releases. Sure there are ambient/drone traces but elements of his post-rock past also shine through, with emphasis on more structured songs and arrangements. There’s drums, piano, field recordings, guitar, samples, really quite a rich tapestry with all manner of ticking, scraping, bells, snatched dialogue, etc. The complex patchwork is expertly woven all strung together by the warm and deeply comforting ambient tones he does so well. Loads to explore here with lots that will reward over repeated listens.
il mucchio mag reviews Damian Valles – Skeleton Taxa
English Translation in the comments.