One of my most anticipated albums is set for release within the next week. Louisville’s The Photographic releases Pictures of a Changing World on March 11th. Having seen them live earlier this year at the Home Grown Series and hearing a few individual tracks online, I’ve been excited to see how the album would come together. I was not disappointed. This is an album that is meant to be heard in its entirety. Individually, the tracks are beautiful ambient/progressive sonic waves. Together, this album is an epic introspective exploration, evoking imagery of being lost & the encounters you might have had, as each track seems to be an evolution of the one before it. You feel a connection with the characters in the story being unfolded before you. So much emotion is carried through so few instruments, and this album leaves you with two feelings…first, you wonder what happens next…second, feeling that anything is possible. The amazing part is that it is only two people creating this incredible sound, using layers upon layers of looped guitars, synths & the subtle, but driving drums. The Photographic is Jamey See Tai on guitar, Chad Blevins on drums & Jesse See Tai on visual effects. Knowing this helps you feel the importance of what they’re doing on Pictures of a Changing World.
The album begins, appropriately, with Inception, which is a beautiful song that calls to mind that feeling when you’re waking up in the morning. Also, the track had hints of Radiohead’s “Everything in its Right Place”. The next one Millie Rode to Heaven on the Back of an Orca could be a day in the aforementioned epic journey unto itself, starting off very soft but eventually erupting into the powerful and upbeat kind of track that makes you drive too fast, and then coming back down as the song’s protagonist lays down to rest.
Directions & Secure are very pop tracks, but retain the introspective quality that makes the album as beautiful as it is. In contrast, We Were Fed Poisoned Bread is as dark of a track as its title implies, climaxing violently. Night Noise is a unique track that is a little more like an indie rock track than the rest of the album, which made it an interesting choice to have been the album selected for inclusion in The Present. The album concludes with what in my opinion is the most impressive track on the album, a Contrivance. This one is a nice middle between some of the more melodic and ambient tracks of the earlier part of the album and the rock of Night Noise.
To write words about an album like this is, in the end, futile. This is an album that tells a different story to every person who listens to it, but it’s an album that everyone can fall in love with and the kind of album you want to fall in love to. To see Jesse put visuals to the performance makes the performance itself beautiful, but my only problem with it is that it starts to tell the listener what to think about while listening to these guys perform, which in some respect takes away from the beauty of what they are making. That said, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I am simply amazed by the fact that kids I see out any random night at the Nachbar can produce this kind of sound. I am incredibly excited to see where the Photographic goes from here, and I’m anticipating that a lot of people will be taking notice very soon.
Tracklist:
Inception
Millie Rode to Heaven on the Back of an Orca
Directions
Secure
Lost in a Daydream
Bridge Runs
We Were Fed Poisoned Bread
Glass Saviour
Night Noise
Up in the Clock Tower,…
a Contrivance
The Photographic - Secure
Louisville, you can catch The Photographic this Saturday at the Pour Haus with the Hotpipes, or by themselves on March 11th (official release date) at Ear X-tacy. The Pour Haus show starts at 10 & the Hotpipes will be going on first, with the Photographic second. The cost of the show is only $5, which should leave you plenty of scrill to pick up the album (which hopefully they’ll have with them at Pour Haus despite being pre-official-release), and let me reiterate the point….you need this album. The Ear X-tacy show starts at 6pm & is taking place on the official release date, so you’ll definitely be able to get your copy then.
