Silver Scrolls: Music for Walks (Three Lobed) LP
We’ve been fans of Dave Brylawski and Brian Quast since 1990, or so. Polvo. Regraped. Vanilla Trainwreck. Idyll Swords. Cherry Valence. Black Taj. Though stylistically unique, each of these bands involves sinewy guitar explorations and evocative use of rhythm and space.
Silver Scrolls dramatically inflects what these previous bands set out to do, stripping down arrangements and narrowing instrumental focus (mostly) to just guitar and drums. But these recordings also utilizes bass, organ and interstitial ambient stops along the way, which suggests a sense of movement, a stopping and going, a pause and then a punch.
Music for Walks is quite rich in dynamics and range. The drums assume a prominent role in the mix, adding a unique instrumental voice (in his earliest recordings, Quast was compared to John Bonham), offering space and room to move around. Can’t emphasize the mix enough here, folks. Major praise to Don Zientara of Inner Ear Studios and Greg Elkins at Pershing Hill Sound in Raleigh for their work here.
From the one-sheet (written by Rob Munk . . . a great musician and artist in his own right, please look him up):
“Together, they have made the ultimate jaunt jam, a ‘light’ concept album divided into ‘Walk One’ and ‘Walk Two.’ As a whole the album through its multiple movements takes the listener from the heart of the city to the crisp mountain air, inviting you to walk, drifting in and out of your own reverie, methodically working your way further away from the trouble you came from and closer to where you want to be. Sonically, Music for Walks explores the entire rock landscape, reflective of Dave and Brian’s own musical paths. There are moments of pop harmonies, blues-based psychedelic rock, math-y what-the-fucks in alt tunings, organ drones and 4 minute percussive interludes. The record feels at once retro and modern, reflective of what it’s like to be an adult in 2020, trying to find a way to keep it all together […].
Music For Walks is, like all good walks, simultaneously introspective, expansive, psychological, rambling and ethereal. Like most of us, the record is equally in awe of nature’s beauty and smitten by the cities that have come to surround it. The album also acknowledges that, like most of us, anxiety and uncertainty can enter our minds and our environments. But the walk is still worth it. Solvitur ambulado: ‘It is solved by walking’. Sure, we are not beautiful like butterflies. But those idiots can’t walk. Put on Music for Walks, open the door, and see where Silver Scrolls can take you.”