Spiderland (Remastered)

If Slint's debut, 1989's Tweez, was one of the earliest salvos in what came to be known as post-rock, their second album, 1991's Spiderland, was where the band pushed their most radical ideas forward and created a touchstone, working with dynamics that made the silences every bit as present as the guitars and drums, manipulating space and time as they stretched out and juggled time signatures, and conjuring melodies that were as sparse and fragmented as they were beautiful. A large part of what makes Spiderland so memorable is the way Slint build so much from so little; there's a great deal of space in Brian McMahan and David Pajo's guitar patterns, but they mesh together in a way that brings out the strength in one another, and Britt Walford's drumming frequently abandons the traditional backbeat in favor of spacious, exploratory rhythms that add color and detail as much they maintain the rhythms. (Todd Brashear's bass ultimately holds down the root of this music with greater force than anything else.) Music this powerful is rarely so quiet for so long, but Slint forge a tremendous dramatic tension in these six songs, and even when the chime of the guitars breaks forth into a roar, the result isn't a rent in the governing emotions of the songs as much as the logical conclusion this music was destined to take (the phrase "tone poems" may seem pretentious, but it really does fit these songs). It took years for Spiderland to be acknowledged as one of the most important indie albums of the '90s, and that seems fitting: this is music that demands a certain patience and participation from the listener, and word of mouth seems a curiously but absolutely fitting way to spread the word about a band that says so much with so few words. Alternately spectral and overwhelming, Spiderland is a singular achievement; plenty of bands would follow Slint's creative example in the years that followed, but few of them came close to the mysterious power and forbidding beauty of this music. [In 2014, Touch & Go gave Spiderland an upscale reissue as part of a luxurious box set that featured a newly remastered version of the album and 79 minutes worth of outtakes, demos, rehearsal tapes, and live recordings, all newly mastered by Bob Weston and presented on both vinyl and CD, as well as a 104-page book and a DVD of Lance Bangs' documentary on Slint, Breadcrumb Trail. The remastered audio makes the album sound even more striking than before, and while not all the bonus material feels essential, most of it is very good (especially a brilliant live performance of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer"), and all of it offers a look into how an important album came to be. Those unfamiliar with Spiderland should stick with the original six-song album, but passionate Slint followers will find their love rewarded in this remarkable collection.]