Liam Singer 'Winter Weeds' – Tome to the Weather Machine

Excerpt: “While most third albums find artists burrowing into an established sound or simply feeling out an established ritual, Singer’s third full length completely explodes his prior minimalist setup and explores huge, swelling climes with a mini-chamber orchestra and choir at his disposal. With earlier material centered around tiny moves shrouded in nostalgia, Dislocatia practically bursts open with huge sounds and heady, overzealous arrangements composed for both piano and voice. 2010 has been an impressive year for neo-classical artists working within traditional modes of music. If the Bedroom Communities roster are the post-romantics, like Brahms and Rachmoninovs, of 21st century indie-acceptable classical music, then Liam Singer is the Erik Satie of the group, playing wildly conceptual music that never quite loses its emotional resonance. Liam Singer culls strands of thoughts from archaic musical styles while still working within a pop song structure. Even in his most straight-forward songs melodies that would stand stark and naked on previous releases are fully fleshed out replete with children’s choirs and choral arrangements, clanking claviers and aching strings…. While putting out his most adventerous and experimental material to tape to date, Singer isn’t afraid to show his cards when it comes to his musical idols. He name drops Morton Feldman on the album’s most obvious tip of the hat to post-modern composers like John Cage and Terry Riley. On the other end of the spectrum his cover of Cat Power’s “Cross Bones Style” is an ode to spiritual mentor Chan Marshall’s forlorn compositions and melancholy which broods beneath every Singer composition.”

Tome to the Weather Machine