tense forms reviews

The Notes and Scratches uh-oh (Tense Forms)
Raucous, glorious stuff. The melodies are sterling, and the arrangements about as messy as can be. Kinda like Nick Lowe producing a later OMD album…though probably a bit busier than even that. This album sounds completely alive.

Seriously, the hours flew by
January 5th, 2006 by Mike

Located in Chicago, Tense Forms is a collection of like-minded musicians, artists, conceptualists and friends that have banded together not in an attempt to make each other famous through virtue of size, but rather to feed off each other’s creative energy, elevating their collective output to unimaginable levels. They are the most organized, on the ball, doing-it-for-all-the-right-reasons group of people I’ve ever been in contact with. The newest project of theirs to cross my desk is the most recent disc from the Notes and Scratches, entitled Uh-Oh.

Listening to an album for the first time at work is always a dangerous proposition. Distractions come, flutter in your face while the phone rings and that pain in your back from uncomfortable office furniture reminds you that the neon-esque glow of the the flourescent lighting is exacerbating your caffeine-withdrawal headache. The next thing you know, you’re on the 10th of 11 songs and remember three words. Such was the scenario I envisioned when I fired up my work iTunes library to sit down for the first time with the new Notes and Scratches album. Moments into “The Hours” and that scenario was deemed impossible by the powers that be. Putting me off-guard with what sounds like a bowed saw, the intro fluttered into the distance behind a crushing and perhaps deadly wall of pounding percussion, squeeze box, slide guitar, piano, electric guitar, and bass. The musical backdrop seems better suited for a Tennessee recording studio than a musty club in the corner of Chicago, but offers the perfect canvas for Joshua Dumas’ patented* 10-cigarette croon. Rough and raspy, it retains an elegance found in only the rarest of occasions, as illustrated perfecty amongst the opening lines of “Seriously” (a duet with the wonderfully voiced Anika Balaconis). The album drives through track after track, letting up only a couple times (though perfectly placed to fight back any fatigue that may fall upon untrained ears) with the introspective tale found in “the Clockmaker’s Daughter” and the brass-laden instrumental “in the Evening.”

Moving beyond that of bands such as The Gunshy and Lucero (who the Notes and Scratches will no doubt draw comparisons to), the strongest point of the album is the collaborative vibe emanating from every moment. A musical metaphor to what brought them together in the first place, Uh-Oh is swimming in friendship, collaboration, creativity and the arts. The CD comes packaged in a beautiful gatefold chipboard package, hand screened with illustrations that create their own entry points from which listeners can enter the album from.

Not only has the band created what easily would have been on my Top 10 List of 2005 had I actually brought it home from the office and spent more time with it, but they have also adapted to the ever changing processes behind marketing and selling their music, offering high-quality DRM-free digital downloads from the Tense Forms website alongside the traditional CD with it’s beyond traditional packaging. When will the larger labels of the world learn?

The album retained its grasp on my attention as it made its way promisingly through track after track, drowning out the dull Monday office-scape and opening itself invitingly to me.

• = If not, it should be.

CD REVIEWS: Local and Independent
BY STEVE MCPHERSON

The Notes and Scratches
Uh Oh
Tense Forms

This debut from Chicago collective Notes and Scratches comes in an unassuming enough package; it’s just chipboard with an endearing illustration of a cat riding a turtle. Leadoff track “The Hours” begins with chunky muted guitar, but the xylophone and singing saw hold forth the promise of something in the vein of pscyh-country shoegazers Mercury Rev. Seventeen seconds in, though, the drums come crashing through, and that’s when their real M.O. becomes apparent. Broken Social Scene’s manic party vibe is present, but their closest neighbor is the Arcade Fire, although singer Josh Dumas is a husky-throated Tom Waits-alike, not a Bowie/Byrne disciple. The album overall is warm and friendly and it gives the distinct impression of having been recorded with one mic in a big empty room. “Via Satellite” is a long distance lament that’s held aloft by a sympathetic horn section and “The Clockmaker’s Daughter”—the highlight of the disc—is an old-fashioned marry-me song in much the same vein as Big Ditch Road’s “Not to Me.” Taken all together it’s not so much high lonesome as lo-fi hopeful; just the thing for playing in the car on those winter nights riding home from the bar.

Tip of the Week
The Notes and Scratches
Tom Lynch

Joshua Dumas’ The Notes and Scratches bridge the gap between concrete indie rock and feel-good pretty pop with their “Uh-Oh” (Tense Forms), a completely enviable and ambitious assault of countless instruments and carefully constructed lyrical swerving. While the cigarette-charred vocals, sometimes hidden in the mix, seem somewhat out of place, they add an unexpected and fruitful aspect to the music, like an old car barely making itself through a Chicago December. Hand-claps, bells, xylophone and strings—nothing is kept out of the record, and while that could easily go oh-so-wrong, Dumas and crew do almost nothing disagreeable and, with near-nauseating charisma, charm to no end. “Uh-Oh” deserves multiple, multiple listens.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005
The Notes and Scratches

Thanks to Chris from Gorrilla vs. Bear for the heads up on The Notes and Scratches. I checked out the tracks provided and with my love for Waits and Gunshy my ears perked up upon hearing Joshua Dumas voice. This is a must have. These tracks have been on constant rotation here and I highly recommend checking these guys out. Also check out their live performance on Chicago’s WLUW. The band’s bio can be found here, their website here, and you can purchase Uh-Oh! here.

posted by M. at 10:13 AM