Cerberus Shoal - Elements of Structure / Permanence (1997) LOSSLESS

Cerberus Shoal biography:
Cerberus Shoal was formed in mid 1994; where the collective came together in Boston. Caleb Mulkerin relocated from his native South Portland while Chris Sutherland and Thomas Roger were in attendance at universities in surrounding areas. While their final member Josh Ogden made his weekly travels from Falmouth to attend band rehearsals. After smoothing out the fixtures of the band, they played their first show in March 1995. Working freely through the punk scene of Ebullition Records and "Book your own f**king life" they went on to release their first Self titled 12-inch record and continued to tour for the remainder of the 95 summer.
With the transition of Kristen Hedges 'in' and Orgden 'out' we were to see the second (of many) incarnations of Cerberus Shoal. Within the next 6 months, time was spent preciously with the singles "Light House in Athens Part one and two" along side the first full length album being written and released. In quick concession they released their next album "And Farewell to the Hightide" on tree records in the summer of 96; featuring the newest musician David Mulder (piano, organ and conga). Continuing to tour, promoting their albums they sadly were to lose the creative mind of Hedge as quickly as she came. Grieving the loss of their first seemingly full line-up the now four piece pushed in through the continuum of 96 spanning in 97 recording many minor releases while also writing "Breathing Machine" and "Never a Solution".
In May 97 glimpses were seen of Cerberus Shoal's next full line-up. The band plunged into a series of collaborations with the Portland based Band "Tarpigh". The two groups agree heartily to work
on two soundtracks for Tim Folland's abstract short films "Elements of Structure" and "Permanence". Setting themselves in front of the TV with the hope to enhance their creative collections, creating two 20 - 30min improvisational pieces. Through the relative success of the project a spark was kindled between the two bands. Originally neither band intended the separate release of the performance pieces. But label "Audio Information Phenomena" released the sound track record "Element of Structure/Permanence" in 98.
Within a matter of weeks, with a six month tour looming in the summer Mulder made his pardons, making his departure final. Now a three piece the group was desperate to keep the ball rolling. With the new bond formed with "Tarpigh" fresh in their minds, a hand was extended for them to hit the road. With Just two weeks notice, Thomas Kovaceric (guitar, oud, zamponya and vocals) and Tim Harbeson (Trumpet, Keyboard, Shakhhachi and accordion) uprooted their lives and joined the troupe. Through this kind gesture Cerberus Shoal was to find themselves a six piece. This was to be their first solid line-up lasting for some three years, living their lives through the expressing of their art. Three records were written, recorded and released: "Homb", ?Crash My Moon Yacht" and ?Mr. Boy Dog"
After three creative years, due to the usual pressures placed upon musicians, the six piece went on their separate ways. So once again in the winter of 2000 Mulkerin and Rogers went on the hunt for new artist; to finally silicate the help of artist/musician Colleen Kinsella, bassist and vocalist Erin Davidson and writer/conceptionliser Karl Greenwald to create the new driving force for their tour in the coming spring. All the time while touring the bond between the group strengthened; so two and a half months, 36 show and 13 different countries later the world was again to see yet another incarnation of Cerberus Shoal.
2002 was to see the band begin upon a split CD series in cooperation with "North East Indie" (label). It was an attempt to collaborate with many like minded artists around the world. As a result there were to be four split CD's with Herman Dune "The Hows and Whys of Herman Dune and Cerberus Shoal", Alvarious B (Alan Bishop of the 'Sun City Girls') "The Vim and Vigour of Alvarious B and Cerberus Shoal", Guapo "Ducks and Drakes of Guapo and Cerberus Shoal" and finally Magic Carpathians "The Life and Times of The Magic Carpathians and Cerberus Shoal". Throughout these splits we were to see some of Cerberus Shoals most experimental and testing works to date.
Amidst the line of splits the new incarnation was able to record another two full length releases which were released simultaneously in the fall of 2003, which represented the entirety of this new Cerberus Shoal's compositions spanning from 2001-03: "Claiming the Knobless One" and "The Bastion of Itchy Preeves".
After the fall of 2003 due to newly induced family duties Tom Rogers was forced to make his permanent departure from the band. This was a sever jolt to the band but keeping true to their ideals Cerberus Shoal went on again to find two new musicians and continued upon their tour schedule playing many times with the likes of Sun City Girls. The two new additions to the band were Chris Mainer and Drummer Tim Morin.
Returning safely from touring the band was given some down time. Sutherland and Mulkerin with the help of Jim Begley and Paul Agnew of North East Indie, re-mixed and remastered Cerberus Shoal's first 12-inch LP, now named "Rosetta Stone". It was renamed and released in the fall of 2004. Shortly afterwards with the help of Scott Colburn (with who they had done much work with before) immersed themselves in the studio for a rapid fire three weeks which was to result in Cerberus Shoals 11th studio album, "The Land We All Believe In"
Cerberus Shoal sound is something every hard to pigeon hole into one genre. Ranging form Post-rock, improvised experimental and avant-garde. Always possessing an uncanny darkness; playing perfectly through sadistic humour. Cerberus Shoal show an impressive innovation taking the art is life mentality to its fullest; creating a fulfilling experience for listeners interested in the more challenging and emotional side of musical compositions.

Review Album:
Once again Cerberus Shoal delivers a studio album with a surprising stylistic turn. In the case of this, their third album, the band takes a cue from the likes of Joe Jackson’s late 80s faux classical releases ‘Will Power’ and ‘Heaven and Hell’; or maybe even some John Cage. Also like their other albums the band manages to sound both slightly dated and timeless simultaneously. That’s quite a trick by the way. There is some resemblance to the journeyman trio Group 87 here as well.
A strong argument could be made for this being their most artistically pristine and impressive album. The very tight melding of improvisational electronica, classical music and modern rock rhythms is nowhere as easy to accomplish as it sounds in a finished product. The group clearly spent quite a bit of rehearsal and production time in the studio before convincing themselves these two lengthy songs were ready for prime-time.
But at the same time I’m not as excited by the almost too-prefect, smooth jazz-like glossy sheen here. The band shows they can hang with the most accomplished ‘serious’ musicians of their day, but somehow for a Cerberus Shoal fan the absence of anything even remotely raw, experimental or occasionally in-your-face leaves a hole in the musical experience. This kind of reminds me of a couple projects former PiL Jah Wobble put out after he sobered up in the early nineties: musically adroit but lacking in body fluids or the tense expectation of an awkward explosion at the most inappropriate time. You know – the sort of thing that separates Chopin from Cobain.
To be fair these two songs were both written as film soundtracks, so the themes and, to a certain extent the moods, were somewhat dictated by the subject matter they were designed to accompany. Some consideration has to be made for this fact. But as a full- fledged Cerberus Shoal studio work I find the final product to be a bit lacking in light of my personally considerable expectations.
Given the technical outstanding delivery I can’t quite conscience giving the CD only two stars, but I also doubt very many progressive music aficionados will find this to be a very appealing album, unless maybe you find Phillip Glass or Robert Fripp’s solo stuff appealing. So I’m going to go with three stars, but with only a mild recommendation for those interested in the whole of the band’s body of work.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 29. April 2009, 20:54

Cerberus Shoal / Elements of Structure / Permanence

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