Constellation
In its fiercely independent 17-year run Montreal’s Constellation Records has built a reputation on issuing dependable music that often favours classical orchestration and sweeping apocalypse-ready compositions. That said Constellation has just released what could be the most engaging rock record of the year.
Based in Montreal but comprised of three Americans and one Aussie Ought bucks Constellation’s trademark sound with one that’s more indebted to the agitated tension of post-punk. Inspired by Quebec’s 2012 Printemps d’Erable student strike (members attended McGill) the four-piece’s debut album More Than Any Other Day is a fervent manifest of their collective anxiety and confusion fed through climax-heavy rock songs.
Falling somewhere between Clinic’s Ade Blackburn and David Byrne vocalist Tim Beeler is an effective conduit mumbling whispers and screams on “Clarity!” and dropping poetic bombs on the mounting rave-up “Today More Than Any Other Day.” His vocals though are no more vital to the jumpy crescendos than any other component.
En masse Ought are an unpredictably dynamic and articulate bunch able to turn on a dime from a rollicking layered garage rocker like “The Weather Song” to a droning sea of strings on the subsequent “Forgiveness.”
More Than Any Other Day is an intrepid first statement by a young band that will hopefully forever be limitless in ability and ambition.
