AEM002 Boy Without God

Records often become inex­tri­ca­bly tied to the place and moment in our lives when we hear them. Music’s power to latch itself on to our mem­o­ries is truly remark­able: a sin­gle song can com­pletely trans­port the lis­tener back into that mood in ways that mere rec­ol­lec­tion can­not. They are an easy ticket for re-experiencing the past. But some­times we asso­ciate them with mem­o­ries that are too painful to con­front, and they become unplayable. Lis­ten­ing to records that can arouse such intense emo­tional mem­ory is a risky busi­ness, but it is per­haps that deeply affect­ing qual­ity that makes music great.

Boy With­out God (Gabe Birn­baum) has made one those records, one of those (and we all have our own favorites) that some­how got under my skin and stayed there. The par­tic­u­lar moments I asso­ciate with it are dark and dra­matic, but that’s not to say Boy With­out God is a downer. Exu­ber­ant and full-blooded, Boy With­out God cre­ates music that is so raw that it will undoubt­edly hit you hard; in what way, it’s hard to say.

That’s in large part due to his craft­ing of sound­scapes. Boy With­out God likes his sound meaty: lo-fi need not apply here. He wraps you in a vari­ety of unusual tim­bres and cre­ates ten­sion and release by grad­u­ally expand­ing that space. No place is this more in evi­dence that on “Holy Holy Lit­tle Fist”, the no-holds barred opener on this dig­i­tal 7-inch that show­cases Boy With­out God at his best: going for broke. Begin­ning with an arrest­ing organ line and spare drum machine, the song is pro­pelled by layer upon layer of vocals, per­cus­sion, a flurry of hand claps, and finally bursts of fre­netic horns (all played by Boy With­out God him­self) that show­case his unique com­bi­na­tion of indie rock and free-jazz. Where most rock musi­cians shy away from such fre­netic dis­so­nance, Boy With­out God rel­ishes in these moments while using them spar­ingly to heighten the effect.

“Boy With­out God” sug­gests some type of exis­ten­tial search­ing, and his lyrics reflect this human­is­tic out­look in “Holy Holy Lit­tle Fist”. “I know fate is a lead coat/weighin on our/silky ties and dead bolts/ all our exoskeletons/ I know fate is lead, molten/pouring into/forms we can­not understand/ guided by our own two hands.” This rejec­tion of fate, this empha­sis on the earthy (in the same song he declares, “We are fields of wise goats defe­cat­ing joy­fully”) can be dis­ori­ent­ing for lis­ten­ers used to music drenched in irony and cyn­i­cism. But the con­vic­tion with which he sings seems to say: so be it. His deep, growly bari­tone – which he often over-dubs mul­ti­ple times – recalls Matt Berninger of The National, but that doesn’t stop him from push­ing his voice to the upper reaches of his reg­is­ter until he’s at a full out scream. Sin­cer­ity is only revolt­ing when it veers into melo­drama, and Boy With­out God is any­thing but that.

“If You” is an inti­mate, hope­ful ballad–the yin to the yang of “Holy Holy Lit­tle Fist”. Boy With­out God adds his dis­tinc­tive orches­tral tem­pera­ment to an oth­er­wise sparse gui­tar track, adding smudges of horns and vibra­phones to cre­ate a warm, wel­com­ing palate. You get a sense of his extreme vul­ner­a­bil­ity here, but it’s an endear­ing vul­ner­a­bil­ity, not a piti­ful one. In the same way that Elliott Smith used to turn his sad­ness into beauty, Boy With­out God has a tal­ent for turn­ing his lone­li­ness into some­thing more.

This two track sin­gle from Boy With­out God gives a small taste of his tal­ent; his other work hints at the epic instru­men­tal genius of Suf­jan Stevens but with none of his cringe-worthy sen­ti­men­tal­ity. With a broader musi­cal palate to work with than most indie rock­ers and flair for the dra­matic, Boy With­out God makes music that’s adven­tur­ous with­out being dis­tanc­ing; music that is, in fact, deeply arrest­ing and per­sonal. And memorable.

Nick Kelly

Side A — Holy Holy Lit­tle Fist Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Side B — If You Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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