by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
If you’ve never heard a band that sounds quite like Brooklyn’s Feast of the Epiphany, you’re not alone. Nick Podgurski (GRID, Extra Life, Yukon), the band’s leader and visionary, is a musician as well known for being an in-demand drummer as he his composer. He’s developed a wide grip on experimental music over the years, producing music often challenging and thought-provoking. Feast of the Epiphany is both, but it’s also enchanting, with its hooks deep into art-pop and prog rock majesty. Any genre descriptions will ultimately come up a bit empty, as Podgurski and company have worked hard to develop their own world. Influenced by Talk Talk, Scott Walker, and Robert Wyatt, the band have made an amorphous epic, a record that’s way over the top but manages to sound constrained. The scope of the project is enormous but the collective work to contain it with orchestral grace throughout their upcoming album Significance, due out February 22nd via Strategy of Tension (Jeff Tobias).
Podgurski is joined by both new and frequent collaborators on Significance, including Jordan Balaber (Ninetails), Tim Dahl (GRID, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus), Tony Geballe (Robert Fripp & The League of Crafty Guitarists), Shelly Purdy (20/20), Tony Gedrich (Extra Life), Cameron Wisch (Dust Star, Cende), Matt Kanelos (Hot Cup), and Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, Gorguts). Built upon various ensembles that shift with each track, the musicians are all focused on the overall patience of the composition and the consistency in mood of the piece as a whole. Billed as the score to a movie that doesn’t yet exist, there’s a define thematic element that remains despite shifts in the line-up. “Significance,” the album’s title track finds Podgurski together with Wisch on drums and Kanelos on piano, the trio slinking together over a brooding progression, slowly crawling between rich soundscapes and sparse but impactful piano. The entire song feels cinematic, destined for a pivotal moment, the point of reflection on all that’s gone wrong. Podgurski and co. stutter between expansive movements and disjointed rhythmic touches, slowly moving in and out of focus, swaying between dreamy and haunting states of being.