Musician Nick Podgurski operates across the boundaries of genre terms, making a music at once warm, and at once austere in its execution. The new album from him, as Feast of the Epiphany, Significance, is accessible and intellectually compelling. This Strategy of Tension release deserves your attention as a listener.
Opener "Happinness Can Be Born" recalls Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, or maybe Rain Tree Crow, that Japan reunion that wasn't called Japan, while the lush "Faith" marries a radio-friendly melody with synth accents to great effect. "What Will Return" has a vibe like early Shriekback, and the presence of guitarist Tony Geballe (Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists, The Trey Gunn Band) adds a spark to this one that makes it a real highlight here. Elsewhere, "Love Dream" is anchored by the guest Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, Gorguts) on guitar. The track has a distinctly David Sylvian-like feel, though there's a lightness of touch that allows the material to seem less forced than it might in other hands.
Nick Podgurski deftly understands how to reference styles of the past without being ironic about it. He's found genuine meaning here in styles that were arch in the New Wave era, and made a sort of art rock that's sharply constructed and easy to get lost in. This whole Feast of the Epiphany album reminded me of an album by The Dolphin Brothers from the late Eighties. That one, a side project of Jansen/Barbieri from Japan, suggested a variation of expected choices from figures fairly well-defined by their own earlier artistic pursuits. Significance is a pleasure to listen to because Podgurski rarely forces the material, instead finding the heart of a genre that may be in need of more resucitation like this.
Significance by Feast of Epiphany is out via Strategy of Tension.
[Photo: Miles Pflanz]