The musical wiz from the legendary Sneaky Feelings is this week offering up a bold album. Operating as One Man Bannister, Matthew Bannister has recorded a set of Emily Dickinson poems set to his music. What sounds like a project that could have resulted in a misfire, is instead a bold, bright work of Art. Out today, The Saddest Noise stimulates the brain and warms the heart.
"Amherst" has a swirling, throwback sort of charm, while "A Bird Came Down The Walk" churns with the sort of fire that fueled any number of tunes from Bannister's own Sneaky Feelings. Elsewhere, Bannister varies the instrumentation quite a bit, rendering "I Had Been Hungry All The Years" with keyboard lines that echo those from Broadcast or High Llamas records, even as "Before I Got My Eye Put Out" grinds a bit like "Yer Blues", Matthew doing his best Ono soul bit here. The strings that anchor "Song for Emily" prefigure the intricate chamber pop of "Stand Alone", the instrumental closer.
In any other hands, an undertaking like this would veer dangerously close to the precipice of pretension. Wisely, Matthew Bannister mixes up the moods of the pieces, such that each feels a wholly unique track, even as the Dickinson verse links all up as episodes in a thematic whole. The Saddest Noise was a very pleasant surprise, and I really hope this release gets as much attention as possible. Fans of New Zealand rock pioneers Sneaky Feelings won't be put off by the music here, and I like to think that scholars of Emily Dickinson's poetry might find the settings capable of revealing further moods contained in the couplets.
The Saddest Noise by One Man Bannister is out today.