Thisquietarmy - Vessels

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 05 May, 2011.

Eric Quach records under a number of different monikers but he's possibly more famous for Thisquietarmy (now known as TQA for review purposes because my fingers are tired). His music tends to be quite varied as well (the big multi headed beast he is) as he treads from genre to genre like a tip-toeing Canadian doom pixie. This album is kinda doomy with a poppy element. It's completely draped in sludge and fuzz but beneath the walls of filth are melodies crawling into your ears. Mike here said it reminded him a wee bit of Fuck Buttons but without the techno beats. Dark shimmerry drone stuff with a hint of evil but you can always see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's important to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel cos if you don't then you don't know where it ends and if you don't know where it ends then that's nothing but worrying. I find it's best to eliminate as much worry from life as possible. Deffo worth spending time with this album though as it's intense powerful stuff!

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Montreal's thisquietarmy create sublime yet massive walls of beautiful shimmering drone, at times with a near pop sensibility, at others near Industrial in its percussive bombast.

Vessels explores themes of the sea and man's struggle with this relentless and all pervasive force, the music a perfect means of expressing both the flat calm and the force 9 storm. Eric Quach, the man behind thisquietarmy, is a prolific artist, and Vessels is perhaps his most impactive work to date. "The Pacific Theater" grips the listener in warm drone before slamming them into the rocks with epic percussion. Album closer "A Spanish Galleon" takes a more gentle approach with clean guitar and washes of orchestral strings.

Quach's live performances are presented as a real-time multimedia installation, based on an impromptu score to a prepared film, which he creates himself. The visual themes revolve around dark ethereal ambiences and ghostly abstract. The live material can be as structured as it can be improvised on the spot, depending on the moment? vibe, and drowns the audience in a hypnotic dream-like state of introspection. thisquietarmy has performed extensively in Canada, USA and Europe.