Although
Bear in Heaven released their previous effort with plenty of tongue-in-cheek pomp and publicity, debuting the album as a glacially paced drone track as well as a brief mockumentary on the making of the album before eventually releasing it at the proper speed, their fourth release,
Time Is Over One Day Old, has had a quieter, more subtle introduction to the world that matched the low-key vibe of their fourth full-length. Dark and spacious, the record takes the Brooklynites knack for carefully textured synth melodies and silky smooth to a more nocturnal space with a collection of ethereal, late-night jams. On "Time Between," Jon Philpot's droning keyboards provide a spacy undercurrent for Adam Willis' delicate, reverb-drenched guitars, creating a dusky atmosphere thats sends the listener on a tour of New York City by night. And like the so-called city that never sleeps,
Time Is Over One Day Old is possessed of a propulsiveness that doesn't allow the listener to stand in one place for very long as it pushes them through the dense and lonely cityscape on the power of Jason Nazary's Motorik percussion work. With this album, it feels as though
Bear in Heaven are trying to explore two directions at once, and against all odds, they're succeeding at both.
Time Is Over One Day Old is a subtle and moody work that somehow manages to keep moving forward with a mechanical precision, giving one the otherworldly, but not at all unpleasant, feeling of standing still on a moving walkway. [
Time Is Over One Day Old was also released on LP.] ~ Gregory Heaney