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Rock Plaza Central
Seven person folk-orchestra Rock Plaza Central's last release, Are We Not Horses, is a concept album about the "apocalyptic daydreams of six-legged robotic horses," who believe they are in fact real flesh-and-blood horses. These delusional, machine-horses somehow find themselves caught in a war between humanity and an army of angels. It sounds odd but somehow works given the band's unique chemistry, ending up in music that is unique, inventive, but accessible and familiar.
This sort of sci-fi subject material would be heady stuff for any other folk-pop band, but band-leader Chris Eaton happens to be a novelist on the side, and two other band members are also working on PhD's. Eaton's emotive warble is off-kilter with a slight hint of the deranged; its timbre may remind fans of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Decemberists, particularly in light of the literary connection. Yet, Eaton maintains a certain joy in the farfetched and weighty subject matter, never becoming too clever or smug for his own good, even if he is singing lyrics from the first-hand perspective of a robotic horse. The rest of the band responds accordingly, with the result landing somewhere between a rag-tag orchestra and campfire singalong.
Their ambitious, epic rock mini-series approach to music would probably fall flat were it not for textured and rich arrangements, drawing from violins, banjos, trumpets, accordions and more. Their dense, poetic indie rock takes time to digest. It's a sort of barely restrained chaos with layers bubbling beneath the surface. And the horses? Says Eaton:
"They are used by the humans to fight and kill the angels, and then begin to wonder if they fought for the wrong side, as the humans keep trying to tell them they aren’t real. Then, one horse (there are no flesh horses left to compare themselves to) falls in love with an angel who managed to avoid being killed, and the two who should be enemies go off to find a place where they can be who they want to be without persecution. They've heard of a place off in the distance, and they can see the lights, so they run towards them. Only, the lights are just stars, and they keep running forever."
Indeed.
Rock Plaza Central - My Children, Be Joyful
Rock Plaza Central - I Am An Excellent Steel Horse
Rock Plaza Central's official site. Buy Are We Not Horses from Amazon.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 02.27.07 at 3:15 PM
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