For Carnation - Post-rock in slow motion

Centered on the figure of Brian McMahan, For Carnation managed, as only Rodan did, to pick up the legacy of the Slint, revitalizing, in the same way as the band behind "Rusty", a distinct sonic conception and inspiring an untold number of musicians.

Typically tied to the Louisville sound and to destructuring, the Kentucky outfit made their debut in 1995 with the EP Fight Songs (Matador). The band featured the ever-present David Pajo alongside the Tortoise duo of John Herndon and Douglas McCombs. A narcoleptic silence spreads through long, drawn-out passages, at times steeped in delicate intimacy ("Grace Beneath The Pines"), at others disguised as restrained energy ("Get And Stay Get March"). The interlude "How I Beat The Devil" is striking for its absolute distillation of slowness, brushing against a sensibility that, if not quite singer-songwriter in nature, comes close to the slow-core of the Codeine camp. It is, presumably, the only possible evolution for McMahan, who started out with Squirrel Bait and slowly drifted toward the point of no return of his musical vision, deliberately slowed down and dramatic. Not absurdly so, depressive in the sad caresses of the guitars.

Definitive confirmation comes with Marshmallows (Matador, 1996), made without Pajo's involvement. Six relatively concise tracks give full shape to music that is genetically the offspring of hidden, hesitant souls. "On The Swing" is a hushed anti-nursery-rhyme, similar in attitude to the previous EP, but more inspired and vividly realized. The emotions are as tangible as they are dormant, in a deliberately sought absence of vitality that only rarely unfurls (the gentle crescendo of "Salo"), or else is fractured into dissonant electricity ("I Wear The Gold"). McMahan shows his unquestionable talent in every form, moving from sketches streaked with disarming sensitivity ("Lmyr, Marshmallows") to passages worthy of the best Gastr Del Sol ("Winter Lair"). The closing "Preparing To Receive You" defines the thirty minutes of the whole record, caught between affliction and surrender, where the voice reaches its final stage and the music turns into apathetic tension.

In 1997 the first two works were reissued together as Promised Works (Runt), and it would take three more years before the band resurfaced.

For Carnation (Touch And Go, 2000) finds a lineup deeply reshuffled around McMahan. Taking part are Bobb Bruno (guitar and keyboards), Steve Goodfriend (drums), Todd Cook (bass) and Michael McMahan (guitar). Alongside them come a host of collaborators, from John McEntire (Tortoise) to Dan Fliegel (The Eternals), by way of Christian Frederickson (Rachel's), right down to Kim Deal's vocal presence on "Tales". The traits highlighted earlier are taken to the nth degree, across a fifty-minute journey that is oppressive and resistant to communication. The incipit of "Emp. Man's Blues" is a black-and-white image drawn from a surreal film, all hypnosis and desolation. The tone lifts slightly, yet the feeling doesn't change even in the following "A Tribute To", with an anguish generated by a guitar that drones on indolently in its repeated advance. "Being Held" is its natural continuation, but the trepidation hinted at before disappears completely here, in a nocturnal instrumental piece folded back on itself, isolated from any sense of contemporaneity. And while "Snoother", in its near song-form, brings things back down to earth, "Tales (Live From The Crypt)" once again asserts the sheer absoluteness of the rawest apprehension, drawing on electronic textures and a drum part dismayed to watch voice and guitar dance with their eyes closed. The circle closes with "Moonbeams", where, as with "Salo" on the first EP, McMahan again plays the card of a restrained, caressing crescendo.

The saga of For Carnation brought to a close the journey begun by Slint. After them there would be new dynamics and new paths, but failing to retrace these trails would be unforgivable for anyone wishing to understand the development of the post-rock phenomenon.

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