Tresspassers William CD Review
Tresspassers William
Having
(Nettwerk)
SoCal gloompop outfit’s second album steps on your chest . . . two, three . . . releases.
Around the same time Tresspassers William’s first album, Different Stars, debuted, so did one by another area collective, Ilya. At the time, the only other Ilya I knew was budding Russian hockey star Ilya Kovalchuk, who had more in common with San Diego than they did.
At turns glacial, cascading, and sinking, Tresspassers William likewise bear little resemblance to their stomping grounds, casting a chilly pall over sunbaked Los Angeles on Having. TW’s sound is dominated by the inconsolable (“No one can punish me like I do”) Anna-Lynne Williams, who apparently spends most of her time peering out at rainy days through a fogged pane of glass. Matt Brown, Ross Simonini, and Jamie Williams swim music around her, careful not to whirlpool because she might drown. Where Having is least effective is the stock-in-trade trip-hop like “Matching Weight” and the perpetual intro of “Safe, Sound.” But borderline acoustic, as they are on “Low Point,” drives — albeit relatively — out of her funk with a spark of life.
— Kevin Keegan
Click here to download “Safe, Sound.”
