Offshore, the fifth full length release from Bloomington, Indiana’s Early Day Miners is more than your standard collection of songs – it’s an idea portrayed through six movements that blend seamlessly together. It's based on the song of the same name from 2002’s Let The Garlands Bring LP.
The band calls this Offshore the “director’s cut.” I can think of no better way to say it. The Offshore of Let The Garlands Bring is packed with special features: more music, more musicians, and infinitely more emotion. It is also more accessible than your average Early Day Miners material.
The song you're hearing right now is called Return Of The Native. It's playing in the Galaxy Media Player above and to the right if you need to use the controls.
Land of Pale Saints opens the album as an overture of sorts. The shoegaze grandeur of the nine-minute instrumental soars over driving tribal drums and My Bloody Valentine guitar noise, touching on themes explored throughout the album. The haunting harmonica and deep bass line in the Constantines meets Peter GabrielDeserter evokes the feeling of the album’s striking front cover photo as it flows into Sans Revival. It’s a song in two parts – the conflict of Deserter and the resolution of Sans Revival.
There is an unmistakable vastness, like a baptism on top of a mountain as Daniel Burton urges you to “give into temptation” and “sever all relations.” I’m reminded of The Catherine Wheel as the song reaches its peak and Burton sings “Give up giving in, running hand in hand” as the guitars reach crescendo and ultimate climax.
The semi-psychedelic alt-country of Return of the Native feels like being alone in a nowhere desert town. Anchored by the brush drumming of Matt Griffin and melancholic guitar wails, Amber Webber (Black Mountain) lends her somber seductiveness to lines like “I’m losing you to your desires in rooms with ocean views.” Eventually, the song devolves into a jam on the same theme before transitioning into the ambient interlude of Silent Tent.
Offshore ends in the same fashion it began, with the slow building instrumental Hymn Beneath The Palasades. It’s familiar and slow building as the drumming becomes more urgent by the moment, and the guitars climb higher and higher into the noise before giving way to heavy riffing over a steady beat which in turn gives way to…well…nothing. It’s an abrupt ending sure, but it makes you want to start the whole thing over again.
Early Day Miners : Offshore Tracklist 01 Land of Pale Saints
02 Deserter
03 Sans Revival
04 Return of the Native
05 Silent Tents
06 Hymn Beneath the Palisades
