Houses - A Quiet Darkness (18/06/2013)
Houses produce the kind of music that could play the soundtrack to life, or at least mine. Covering all seasons, their music ranges from high-impact emotional chords to a distantly, yet wholly present sound that rests on a mellowed eclectic beat.
The Chicago duo, Dexter Tortoriello and Megan Messina, or Houses as they are better known have released their sophomore album A Quiet Darkness which follows their debut release of All Night in 2010.
A Quiet Darkness is a delicate, dreamy electro-pop compilation that sails on smooth instrumental collaborations and haunting vocals, yet their journey to this point wasn’t so smooth. Tortoriello, a former metal artist, battled with drug additions in the mid 2000’s before meeting with his girlfriend and co-artist, Messina. Working together at a local Apple store in Illinois (and Tortoriello later being fired), the couple moved to Hawaii, lived off the land and later, producing their hit album, All Night.
Returning to a more urban setting, A Quiet Darkness was also founded in an inspiring way. While making the album, the couple moved from Chicago to Los Angeles and along the way, visited abandoned houses along the empty stretches of highway, experimenting with the different sounds created by the houses’ desolate, haunting fixtures.
Opening with an innocent childhood melody, Houses first track, ‘Beginnings’ sets up a dark dichotomy as Tortoriello raspy voice weighs in and sings of darkness and mortality. With a steady, drawn-out drumbeat and melancholic guitar sounds, the song steers away from the initial innocence to a state of morbidity, with Messina’s ethereal, haunting vocals layering Tortoriello’s.
‘Smoke Signals’ rests on an eerie minute-long dreamy ambience that distantly underlays the duo’s ghostly vocals. ‘Carrion’, the sixth track off the album teeters on the delicate keys of the piano with a building percussion that compliments Tortoriello and Messina’s wistful voices while ‘What We Lost’ introduces a heavy electronic sound which moves slightly away from vibe in the other tracks.
A Quiet Darkness is a splendid mystery. Meshing themes of love, beauty, morbidity and death all into one, it is hard to believe that Houses’ rich sound was founded on the sounds of desolation and abandonment. Despite the mix of noise and percussion, there is always an eerie silence looming at the fall of each sound which powerfully depicts the atmospheric isolation in which the album was created.
Aneeka Simonis
The Chicago duo, Dexter Tortoriello and Megan Messina, or Houses as they are better known have released their sophomore album A Quiet Darkness which follows their debut release of All Night in 2010.
A Quiet Darkness is a delicate, dreamy electro-pop compilation that sails on smooth instrumental collaborations and haunting vocals, yet their journey to this point wasn’t so smooth. Tortoriello, a former metal artist, battled with drug additions in the mid 2000’s before meeting with his girlfriend and co-artist, Messina. Working together at a local Apple store in Illinois (and Tortoriello later being fired), the couple moved to Hawaii, lived off the land and later, producing their hit album, All Night.
Returning to a more urban setting, A Quiet Darkness was also founded in an inspiring way. While making the album, the couple moved from Chicago to Los Angeles and along the way, visited abandoned houses along the empty stretches of highway, experimenting with the different sounds created by the houses’ desolate, haunting fixtures.
Opening with an innocent childhood melody, Houses first track, ‘Beginnings’ sets up a dark dichotomy as Tortoriello raspy voice weighs in and sings of darkness and mortality. With a steady, drawn-out drumbeat and melancholic guitar sounds, the song steers away from the initial innocence to a state of morbidity, with Messina’s ethereal, haunting vocals layering Tortoriello’s.
‘Smoke Signals’ rests on an eerie minute-long dreamy ambience that distantly underlays the duo’s ghostly vocals. ‘Carrion’, the sixth track off the album teeters on the delicate keys of the piano with a building percussion that compliments Tortoriello and Messina’s wistful voices while ‘What We Lost’ introduces a heavy electronic sound which moves slightly away from vibe in the other tracks.
A Quiet Darkness is a splendid mystery. Meshing themes of love, beauty, morbidity and death all into one, it is hard to believe that Houses’ rich sound was founded on the sounds of desolation and abandonment. Despite the mix of noise and percussion, there is always an eerie silence looming at the fall of each sound which powerfully depicts the atmospheric isolation in which the album was created.
Aneeka Simonis