The Mast

Wild Poppies

(Channel A)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

 

Amongst usual suspects like TV on the Radio, Bon Iver and Okkervil River on The Red Alert’s Top 15 Albums of 2008 was the full-length debut from Haale, “a vibrant pop album with a buzzing underbelly of psychedelic guitars and bracing Eastern percussion.” Despite our best efforts and incredible power, she has yet to get the credit she’s due. So while branching out with a new band may very well be creatively satisfying, it also has the chance to be a savvy business move. Just the phrase “new duo from Brooklyn” will cause some eyes to open (and other eyes to roll, probably – but oh well).

“The Mast” is an unfortunately forgettable name for a unique duo – Haale and percussionist Matt Kilmer. Haale’s talents are well showcased throughout; she’s an extremely expressive vocalist who sounds at once familiar and wholly unique. Her yearning vocals take on the quality of secular spirituality, with lyrical talk of earth and energy and interconnectedness and past lives. The easy-listening “Definitions” isn’t one of the album’s highlights, but it drives home one theme particularly well: “Six-thousand miles away, the word sounds exactly the same / It describes a state of natural bliss, wonder and awe with existence.”

Alongside this theme of finding elation in our existence – and sometimes right atop it – is a high-voltage charge of sensuality, not quite hitting the same heights as Haale’s solo albums, but certainly palpable in the ecstatic heights of the chorus of “My All” or the crashing climax of “Lucid Dream.”

Kilmer is a longtime collaborator and the chemistry is obvious. Far from a background percussionist, he’s an equal partner in The Mast’s sound. Whenever a song threatens to drift too close to the edge of pleasant ambient facelessness –and there are a few that qualify as contenders – his inventive, sometimes tribal-oriented percussion work keeps the track engaging. The frantic propulsion of “Trump” adds a whole unexpected layer of tension to what otherwise would still be a melodic standout, but not a dramatic standout.

One of the most common complaints about a debut album is that the group is still trying to find their identity. In the case of The Mast, both artists have clearly already found their sweet spot. Hopefully they will continue to work together to expand on the promising “beginning” of Wild Poppies.