SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE (Field Music) - Sea From Shore

Field Music fans, l isten up. I sure am one � in fact, I�m a HUGE one as their body of work is some of my favorite music of this *entire* decade. This is a solo solo album of David Brewis who really turns up the wacky factor and makes it stick because, well, he can�t help it. He�s one of the great, unknown talents out there. Period. Here�s a review that *gets* it: �4 stars. A lot of tears and worry followed in the wake of Field Music's announcement that its members were putting the band on the shelf for the time being -- not exactly breaking up or going on hiatus, mind you -- in order to branch out and follow other creative endeavors. Admittedly, that's the usual cop-out nearly every other band in the world would take instead of going whole-hog and breaking up. For Field Music, it's already starting to look like a noble decision.

First up out of the Field Music compound is David Brewis' School of Language. The project -- it's a one-man recording outfit rather than a band -- proves that Field Music might have known just what it was doing when it went on its break. A collection of everything from studio manipulated tracks to outright sound collages, Sea from Shore isn't just a solo outing for Brewis. It's the sort of album that's almost impossible to picture coming from anywhere but out of the workshop of a holed-up musical tinkerer -- certainly not from a band. If School of Industry is unconventional and a break from tradition, it doesn't fly off the precipice and into experimental worlds. Brewis' bread and butter is crafting the sort of arrangements that simply couldn't exist without wacked-out recording tricks to create them, but at their heart and soul, they're still conventionally structured songs. That doesn't preclude them from being interesting. "Poor Boy," one of the album's most straightforward numbers, matches a glammed-out guitar with thumping programming, helping us glimpse a possible future for glitter-rock. No, School of Language won't take Field Music's place, but it's at least a positive sign that the act knew what it was doing when it put the Field Music brand to rest for a while. If there's any doubt that the band members' creativity peaked, consider them dispelled.- �Aversion.com.

�4 stars. Apart from a tiny bit of help on guitar and backing vocals, Brewis is responsible for every sound on the album and, much to the relief of anyone lamenting the end of the band, every sound he makes could have been taken straight off a Field Music album. Sea from Shore is perhaps less polished and sleek than Tones of Town, but it shares the same precise use of instrumentation, the same amount of melodic invention, the same warmth and restrained emotion, and -- perhaps most importantly -- Brewis' wonderfully elastic and rich vocals. As with any Field Music record, there is a sense of daring and exploration throughout Sea from Shore that is both exciting and comforting. Sea from Shore could have been a huge letdown, but instead is another wonderful record from the increasingly trustworthy Field Music family.�-AMG. Song #1 - mp3

Song #2 - mp3

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