Do Make Say Think: Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead (2000)

As I search for words to express my feelings about DMST’s third release, Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead, I cannot help but be reminded of the analogy wherein our human understanding of truth is compared to the attempts of three blind men to describe an elephant to the best of their ability. Since the men are blind, their descriptions are based wholly on tactile data, which isn’t an altogether insurmountable disadvantage. It makes sense to assert that one could come to a reasonably accurate description of an elephant exclusively through the sense of touch. But here’s the rub of the entire thought experiment: each man is essentially assigned to one part of the beast. Therefore, they are forced to make judgments of the whole based on interaction with only one of the parts. You can guess where this is going. The man who feels the elephant’s tail states unequivocally that an elephant is slender and stringlike. The man who feels the elephant’s ears claims that elephants are like massive fronds. The man who feels the elephant’s trunk asserts that elephants are hollow and cylindrical. The upshot of the analogy is that all of the men’s observations are accurate insofar as they do, in point of fact, provide information about the elephant. The crucial mistake is that they assume knowledge of the particular can be extrapolated to the whole. Which leads to the matter at hand. Goodbye is such a rich and multi-faceted work that many are bound to view it in terms of singular characteristics in order to make it more manageable. Some are bound to view Goodbye as the pièce de résistance of the post-rock genre. Others, listening to the exact same record, will herald the album as an indictment against the bloated pretension of the post-rock ethos, citing its mischievous character and lightheartedness as proof that it represents the antithesis to the "woe is me" mentality that informs much of the genre's finer works. Such conjecture, while gratifying to some extent, fails to account for the album’s brilliance dans l’ensemble. The album is rife with the experimentalism and superior musicianship that one would expect from listening to the prior two releases, but it also exhibits that inexplicable quality that is shared by all musical works of consequence. There is something primordial, something universal, about the tones and textures the band employs. I revisit the album often and it never ceases to impress me. Goodbye is the rare album that retains its relevance even as one’s tastes and perceptions change. Goodbye must surely be ranked among the handful of impeccable records produced in the last decade.

Do Make Say Think: Besides E.P. (1999)

In contrast to the numinous atmospherics and washed out drone of DMST’s self-titled release, the Besides EP showcases the band’s ability to create striking and intense rock melodies. Perhaps the most salient feature of the record is how the band is able to imbue the tracks with such breadth and texture, considering that the songs are all anchored by relatively simple melodic phrasing. “Bobby Zincone” affirms without any reservation that the band can produce tightly spun epic movements with the best of their label mates. As with the ST release, there is plenty about the Besides EP that will surprise you. One of DMST’s most impressive features is their ability to concentrate myriad influences into a cohesive whole and not have the end result sound muddled and ostentatious. A dedicated synthesis of precision and abandon, the Besides EP is an album that generously rewards the listener.

Do Make Say Think: ST (1998)

The first Do Make Say Think album I ever heard was the breathtaking goodbye enemy airship the landlord is dead. I remember the whole experience as if it occurred yesterday. I was listening to Yanqui U.X.O. by Godspeed You Black Emperor at the time and I was flipping through the Constellation Records order form that came tucked safely between the album artwork and liner notes. Of all the bands listed, I chose to invest my last bit of money for the month into Do Make Say Think. I always do my best to start with a band's first album so I can get a sense of the natural and inevitable sense of progression that occurs between each release. But for some reason that remains inexplicable to this day, I broke my time honored tradition and began my foray into the world of DMST with goodbye. After quickly becoming obsessed with goodbye, it was only natural to search for the band's other releases. It was with a bit of trepidation that I approached the band's debut, eponymous release. After all, it only makes sense that a band's first offering be somewhat muddled and not fully realized. Imagine my surprise when I learned that none of these shortcomings applied to DMST. Their debut was exciting and unwieldy, full of surprise and endless variation. As a teenager, trying seriously to establish lifelong musical preferences, DMST's eponymous release was a godsend. Its fuzzed out, jazz-inflected, psychedelic glory was the perfect antidote for my growing disillusionment with the state of music. It made me realize the incredible power a band could possess when they play music that is true to each of the member's creative impulses. This is not to suggest that the album is not challenging. I've listened to it in the neighborhood of three dozen times and I still feel somewhat ill-equipped to chart its features. At times, abrasive, at others, mesmerizing. At times, dissonant, at others, genuinely melodic. At times, as frightening and awe-inspiring as one's first glimpse of the ocean, at others, as soothing and familiar as the house where you were raised. The album is both an energetic and brilliant pronouncement and an enticing sample of things to come.