LISTENING TO - Getting Killed by Geese

The production on Getting Killed is one major factor in this albums apparent cohesiveness. It has, overall, a rather clean sounding acoustic, as though this were recorded live to give it a punch, with little further unnecessary embellishment required. It's shorn of showy bombast or overly studio based effects, everything originates with the dynamics of a tight band of folk playing together. So whenever it does get raucously worked up, as it does on the album opener Trinidad, or later in Bow Down, the acoustic cacophony and mess is all the more to be relished. As though this trickster demon has taken over the band and is set on causing destructive mayhem. But all this is a carefully created acoustic deception, put down on this recording. They sound like this small local indie band, that's putting in its application early to make stadium grade.

Cobra - Geese

Camaron Winter's vocals are noticeably never allowed to be subsumed under anything that is going on around them. Because so much of the feverish energy present erupts from out of his larynx. There are many touchstones stylistically that are referenced here. Winter's vocal style here at times is reminiscent of Rufus Wainwright or the Violent Femmes. Lyrically he has moments when he conjures with the spirit of unease present in early Nick Cave,  bellowing about 'there's a bomb in my car' on Trinidad or in the phrasing and emphasis of 'bow down down down to Maria's dead bones' on Bow Down. 

Half Real - Geese

It is one of the minor miracles of this album that even when the sound touches on such influences or established styles like blues for instance, it uses them simply as jumping off points to transcend or abruptly take them somewhere totally unexpected and original. There is frequently something delightfully fiddly and percussive going on, flamenco hand claps or a guitar loosely jangling like a bell, that gives the sound an improvisatory, yet still with a propulsive edge.

Bow Down - Geese

Getting Killed is not a sound nor an album that reveals all its treasures in one listen. My appreciation for how good this album could be, has only grown with each repeated listen. Because you do have to give yourself time just to tune in to the vibe of where it's coming from. But once reached, there is much to be gorged upon.

Long Island City Here I Come - Geese

CARROT REVIEW - 7/8