Unknown Species is the perfect name for this record. It’s a little bit ambient, a little bit drone, and a little bit electronic; it features a banjo; and thanks to the cover image, it might also be considered post-rock (get it?). We’re categorizing it as experimental, although cross-genre is a better term.
Nathan McLaughlin and Joe Houpert, on the other hand, seem neither loud nor sad. The banjo – a sweet addition last heard here in The Andrew Weathers Ensemble – is plucked in happy fashion on “species one (lomax acid)” and reappears two tracks later to prevent any thoughts of unhappiness from seeping in. The album is thoughtful, meditative and only occasionally raucous (“overture”), but loud and sad – not really. That’s okay, we didn’t really want to be sad. We did want to be entertained, and that’s what this album does. It’s experimental in the best way, pleasing the ear while defying convention. The nine-minute “species two (blind date)” begins with a repeated three-note guitar motif, but morphs into a series of electronic tendrils, accompanied by puffy drones. Most will never see it coming, but will be happy when it does.
Even though the banjo plays a minor role in terms of time, it plays a major role in timbre. After the album ends, one still recalls its echoes. The stuttered appearance it makes at the beginning of Side B is akin to the precise electronic work of artists such as Pawn, a slicing and re-presentation of sound sources to achieve an even greater effect. In this sense, the instrument is less an instrument in the traditional sense as a fountain from which instrumentation is drawn. The album’s only downside is that it ends so abruptly – one wonders if a track is missing, until noting that the last piece is titled “finale”. One wants more, then realizes (okay, there’s the sadness) that there is no more.
Loud & Sad, while bold enough to experiment with different palettes, never loses the plot. Perhaps it is because the unfamiliar contains so many aspects of the familiar. This keeps the listener intrigued instead of confused, and makes Unknown Species something worth naming and owning – even if it cannot be properly categorized. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 