JAKOB cale:drew

Another virtually unknown gem is revealed in today's blog. I'm far too good to you aren't I...

It’s hard to say exactly what leads someone to create music as organic as this. Perhaps it’s growing up surrounded by nature. That would go some way to explain where instrumentalists like Mogwai (Scotland), Sigur Rós (Iceland) and Jakob (New Zealand) draw their inspiration.

On cale:drew Jakob have absorbed the dramatic landscapes of their homeland and somehow painted them in sound. This works best on tracks like ‘Semaphone’ and ‘Skew…aard’ where echoey fingerpicking conjures up meandering rivers one moment before crashing drums and guitar feedback evoke rugged mountains the next.

It proves you don’t need synthesizers and computers to produce ambient soundscapes. Simple chord progressions and a good sense of timing are all that’s required here. Often they use nothing more than guitar, bass and drums – and when they do use vocals (on ‘Faye’) they’re subdued and indecipherable, creating a mood rather than describing one.

Aside from obvious similarities with Mogwai and Sigur Rós, Jakob’s gradual ascents toward heart-wrenching crescendos of noise call to mind Disintegration by The Cure. cale:drew won’t have anything like the commercial appeal of that record but it carries a similar vibe.

If this album were a place it would be: Milford Sound in New Zealand.

By Andy McLean. Copyright held by author.

Article first published in The Brag, Sydney, 2004.

cale:drew is available through Midium Records.