Damian Valles - Skeleton Taxa

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5...according to our Ant on Thu 01 Sep, 2011.

Damian Valles hasn't been releasing solo music for a very long time. Only since around 2009 I think, however I suspect he's been honing his sound for quite some time (in between playing in various bands over the past decade) as his previous releases on Hibernate, Under The Spire, Standard Form and now Drifting Falling are remarkably accomplished. Here Damian creates a most mysterious soundworld with a greater focus on instrumentation than on recent releases. Sure there are ambient/drone traces but elements of his post-rock past also shine through, with emphasis on more structured songs and arrangements. There's drums, piano, field recordings, guitar, samples, really quite a rich tapestry with all manner of ticking, scraping, bells, snatched dialogue, etc. The complex patchwork is expertly woven all strung together by the warm and deeply comforting ambient tones he does so well. Loads to explore here with lots that will reward over repeated listens.

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Canadian musician, Damian Valles has been performing for more than a decade with bands that run the musical gambit from punk, post-hardcore and math rock to electronic and post-rock. Over the last two years he's concentrated more on solo work, creating experimental ambient and drone based soundscapes.

With several releases already under his belt (a number of limited CD-R's, a cassette, two Netlabel releases, and several compilation appearances), Skeleton Taxa, is Valles' seventh release to date. It's also his first "proper" full length CD and his first for the Drifting Falling imprint. Mastered by Taylor Deupree (12K), Skeleton Taxa is a return to sounds first explored on his debut release, Count(r)ies (Under the Spire), but with an even stronger emphasis on instrumentation and song structure as opposed to the drawn out drones and ambient pieces he's explored in his recent work. Most of the tracks fall under five minutes and tend to have clear "parts" and passages, heavily guitar oriented with spatterings of piano, organ, field recordings and a healthy dose of percussive backdrops. The ambience and dronings are still present, but are there to fill out and carry the sound, rather than dominate the piece. Also, a new element is present on this release, the human voice, with samples and recordings of dialogue, manipulated or not, strewn throughout the course of the album. The track, "Bell And Arc", features vocals by Damian's wife, Heidi Hazelton.

Says Damian, "I feel like it's my most accomplished work to date. The concept behind Skeleton Taxa is as a collection of individual pieces that work better as a whole, a patchwork of sorts. Some of the tracks have been sitting dormant for months to years, some are reworked tracks from a previous life, and some are fresh out of the box; hints of traditional song compositions intertwined with sound collage that, somehow, seem to fit together to create a cohesive 'entity' or 'body'."

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