Bottomless Pit - Hammer of the Gods
(Comedy Minus One)

Chicago quartet Bottomless Pit have made their debut record available online from their own website and also from New Jersey based micro-label Comedy Minus One. Full disclosure: BP is Andy Cohen and Tim Midgett, both formerly of Silkworm, with Brian Orchard and Chris Manfrin of .22 and Seam respectively. I love all three of these bands and my appreciation for their work extends to this new album. It was recorded with Greg Norman at his home studio, at Electrical Audio and in Tim Midgett’s home studio. The record is double vinyl with a speed of 45rpm, as opposed to the more common 33rpm. The main difference is that the higher 45rpm speed will have more musical information per linear distance as the stylus moves along the groove. Essentially, these records are of higher fidelity than their slower counterparts. Chances are, if you have a turntable it will play both speeds but a compact disc version of the album is included if you buy it from the band’s website, which I implore you to do so*.

From the off, this band is very aptly named indeed, even if the album itself isn’t. The richness and sheer depth of the baritone** and bass format combines into a wonderfully rewarding and craggy musical landscapes that we’ll all be exploring for months to come. The band definitely has a foot in classic rock territory as the aforementioned title suggests but the sound is still thoroughly modern thanks to some unbelievably crisp recording. Every instrument is represented pristinely in the mix and the band seem to lock together like a jigsaw puzzle cut with laser precision. Alternately, the songs chime in hypnotic union and then descend into carefully orchestrated madness, usually when guitarist Andy Cohen unleashes another of his trademark nonsense solos. In these moments, the joke that if Silkworm were Creedence Clearwater Revival via the Minutemen then Bottomless Pit are New Order via Grand Funk Railroad rings especially true. Although shades of Seam, .22 and Silkworm appear now and then, this album is thankfully a very different proposition indeed.

Since each side of vinyl contains two songs and there is no track-list anywhere in the artwork (or indeed, any text whatsoever) presumably we are being invited to decide in which order we want to play the songs. Of course, you could just pop in the CD and copy the running order from there but where’s the fun in that? The opening couplet of ‘The Cardinal Movements’ and ‘Dogtag’ set the pace in fine form. The former is one of the most abstract songs Tim Midgett has ever penned but the reflective, gyratory groove sucks you into the Bottomless Pit sound immediately. The latter is classic Andy Cohen, complete with sing-along chorus. Flip the disc over and a nimble Peter Hook-esque bassline introduces the bright ‘Repossession’ accompanied by the truly excellent ‘Leave The Light On’, which might be the most ambitious song on the whole album. Brian Orchard’s bass locks into Chris Manfrin’s syncopated drum-beat as guitar and keyboard dance playfully in and out of the mix. After a spooky minute and thirty seconds, the guitars rise and converge in the air before dropping into the background again and circle like the last drops of water disappearing down a open plughole.

In light of the tragic demise of Silkworm, ‘Dead Man’s Blues’ and ‘Human Out Of Me’ bite the hardest overall. “People you’ve got to be careful,” implores Cohen on the former before tearing into a histrionic anti-solo that would have Andy Gill green with envy. The beautiful, elegiac ‘Human Out Of Me’ is Tim Midgett’s farewell to former band-mate Michael Dahlquist. As touchingly personal as it is, the song captures the universal horror of abrupt loss and the feelings of desperate confusion that often result. “I can’t believe how terrible it felt,” he intones over a gorgeous instrumental foundation. A worthy tribute and a exquisite song to say the very least. The last side is dedicated to the two strangest songs on Hammer of the Gods. ‘Greenery’ is a veritable swamp of feedback and ranks amongst the darkest songs Cohen has written. Perhaps even more intriguing is the closing ‘Sevens Sing’, which is little more than a bassline with rumbling percussive accompaniment. Initially, the decayed violin and sparse trumpet squawks seem like an afterthought but after repeated listens it starts to hang together impeccably. Eight songs and just over the half-hour mark - absolute perfection. Album of the year.

Tommydski

* To expand on why this would be an interesting record to obtain rather than just finding the music online, I’d like to explain a bit more about the process of recording an album to vinyl and specifically why this arrangement suits a band such as Bottomless Pit. The tracks which make up the songs on Hammer of the Gods were recorded to magnetic tape in either of the studios used. Magnetic tape is the preferred method of analogue recording, being a thin strip of plastic coated with a magnetisable coating of iron oxide. Thus, when a sound is recorded onto this surface, the representation is directly related to the physical properties of the original sound. Ultimately, the amplitude and phase of the sound is intact. This record was mixed at Electrical Audio, a studio in Evanston, Illinois renowned for high fidelity analogue recording. Mixing is as we have previously discussed, adjusting the relative frequencies of each individual instrument to make it more or less prominent to your ear. Music mixed at EA typically eschews sound compression, which means that the dynamic range is left intact. Once the album is mixed, the final process is mastering the record for transfer to vinyl. Mastering is ensuring that the finished sound is within the capabilities of the chosen medium. Hammer of the Gods was mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, England which involves a process called Direct Metal Mastering. Simply put, the record is pressed using copper foil rather than acetate to provide a more accurate representation of the original sound. Each side of the 45rpm twelve inch records contains two songs. This entire process is so the sound of the album is as close to the sound of Bottomless Pit playing in front of you. You won’t hear the full benefit of this process from a digital download so buy the vinyl and give your ears a treat.

** A Baritone Guitar is a guitar with a longer scale length which allows it to be tuned to a lower range. If you think of the sound you attribute to a bass guitar - that low, rumbling range of frequencies - this is the ‘bottom end’ of most popular music. Baritone is the range just above bass, much lower than a regular guitar. This provides a much deeper sound than you might normally attribute to an electric guitar. If you listen to the stream of the song ‘Human Out of Me’ here on the BP website, you will be able to distinguish between the instruments quite easily. As an experiment, try not to hear the song itself, just think about the individual sounds within the mix. Initially, you will hear a series of picked notes being played in the right channel (your right speaker or headphone) which is Andy Cohen playing in regular tuning. The bass will sound to the behind and left of you, usually because best practices separate each individual instrument to improve the overall clarity of the mix. After 14 seconds, the instrument playing a slower, more measured pattern is Tim Midgett playing Baritone guitar. Notice how it sounds much richer than the guitar in the right channel and has a distinctive sustain. Try to pick out the Baritone guitar in the other tracks and gradually you will find yourself being able to appreciate the textures a bit more.