Darling the Dawn (Constellation Records) is the debut album by long-time collaborative duo Ariel Engle (La Force, Patrick Watson, Broken Social Scene) and Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion) as ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT. For forty-four minutes of vocal-driven electronic droning — combining the melodic tones of Engle with the “noise” (as the credits put it) of Menuck — there’s less of a sense of being taken from A to B, but rather being given the warm blanket of a trance to lie in. 

And why do I feel by the end like I should be standing on a mountain in a white robe raising my hands to the sun god!?

Certainly, there is a sense of the power of the sun and being drawn to the light throughout the album — whether in the lyrics, the sparkling, electronic textures, or even track titles like ‘We Live on a Fucking Planet and Baby That’s the Sun’ and ‘Waiting for the Light to Quit’. Sometimes, as with the former track, the song titles themselves seem to convey just as much meaning as the lyrical content — with much of the album consisting of floating, drifting, instrumental passages that slowly build (sometimes for several minutes) before the vocals come in.

Engle, who provides most of the vocals, sounds lush and rich throughout. On the opening track ‘A Sparrow’s Lift’ her tone is soothingly intimate, the accompanying electronic backing, subtle and complementing her voice in a very pleasant way. Later on, ‘The Sons and Daughters of Poor Eternal’  might be the most effective presentation of her voice, not just in the performance, but the layering and effects of her vocal melodies. The track, at nine minutes, like much of the album, doesn’t really go anywhere, but equally it doesn’t drag. 

The tracks are in no rush. They take their time to create the atmosphere and hold the listener in it. 

When Menuck lends his own vocals to the songs — as he does on ‘A Workers’ Graveyard (Poor Eternal)’ and the gigantic-pain-in-the-arse-to-keep-writing-in-full ‘We Live On a Fucking Planet and Baby That’s the Sun’ — he offers quite a contrast to Engle, sounding something like Elvis Costello reincarnated into a drunk circus bear. While the former track draws a certain comparison to Elbow with its pulsing, sparkling ambience, the latter is one of the album’s most evolving and developed tracks, starting out in a very dreamy fashion, before becoming somehow proggy with gently building percussion and colourful explosions that bring to mind the ecstatic reverie of the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev. 

https://youtu.be/NhjBoZvd4qU

German krautrock legends Can are mentioned in the duo’s press release — alongside an interest in folk music — and those two reference points make perfect sense throughout this album, which feels like folk music deploying modern, electronic tools. Mostly dispensing with beats and melodic development, this is an enjoyable album of gorgeously produced drone music, made all the more appealing by Engle’s vocal delivery. 

Buy the album here:

https://allhandsmakelight.bandcamp.com/album/darling-the-dawn 

7 / 10 

TOM OSMAN