Vanishing Voice – Stone Tablet (Important, 2007)
(This originally appeared in the Spring ‘07 issue of Skyscraper)
The LP version of this release sports a screen printed sleeve and the first 100 copies are on red vinyl. That was for the dork in all of you. After all of that, yes this is a band that recorded with Wooden Wand, who has now decided to work with the Sonic Youth dudes. But even without the Wand around, the band still cranks out some good noise. If you’ve become familiar with their previous releases and appreciate the structured portions, “The Last Evil” kicks in with the only feasible vocal lines on either side. It too, however, eventually devolves into a mess of noise and drums. Namesake of the album and the entire first side of it, “Stone Tablet” disorients the listener with the strangled electric guitar coming out of the right channel atop of the melody (that term is loosely used). Tribal drumming of the up and down variety, as opposed to carefully syncopated and nuanced kind, helps shift the song into different phases of discordant music. Eventually instruments phase away and there’s just production noise and a female moaning with a skreetch to end the side. Not wholly informed by kraut-rock, but noisily and doggedly related to it, Stone Tablet begins The Vanishing Voice’s stand alone musical output rather brashly.
