Disconnect From Desire

School Of Seven Bells have great plans

Wizards and hypnotizers from School Of Seven Bells raised a stir in 2008 after releasing a very peculiar CD with unrivaled music, Alpinisms. The trio comprising Benjamin Curtis and twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra Deheza followed the footpath of the shoegaze monsters My Bloody Valentine and modified this music slightly to their own preferences. However, the young musicians failed to avoid parallels with the reputed outfit. Neither gothic atmosphere nor exotic East-styled spells helped School Of Seven Bells convince the audience of the originality and newness of this music as they stubbornly believed it was a variety of the style immortalized by the album Loveless of the aforementioned My Bloody Valentine. However, that is up to the critics to decide who borrowed or stole from whom, while regular music lovers simply enjoyed a long-standing nostalgic trip offered by Alpinisims. And what did School Of Seven Bells do? Initially seen as a short-term formation, they supported their debut with a streak of impressive gigs and used the intermissions to think up the sophomore effort. The new album, called Disconnect From Desire, saw the light of days in the mid summer 2010.

Heading for order and distinction

The main question put by all of those who cared about the School of Seven Bells music was something like: will the band develop what they proposed on the first CD or will they prefer to look for some other options? Disconnect From Desire was expected to shed light on this matter. The situation gets clearer with the start of the opener, Windstorm. This one has quite a distinct structure close to what you find in pretty much any pop-music song. The sisters sing clean and pure instead of uttering mantras or whispering, something heard often on the record released two years ago. Similar patterns are used in Joviann, and Babelonia. They have distinguishable intro, main part and outro together with choruses and verses. Transition to a more distinct and systematic material is not the only new thing here. Strange, and Dust Devil are driven by powerful drums, so thick that you start doubting their computer origin. In the meantime, the arrangements and synthesizer passages are still designed for creating an atmosphere of mystery and mystique. After all, this was the feature that did not only emphasize the specific character of the first CD’s material, but also made it especially attractive.

More than just another band

Fusion of shoegaze and dance music with a peculiar atmospheric sounding requires hard labor in the studio and precision in the arrangements. Such music should be savored under special conditions. It sounds simpler and poorer if played on the stage. That is the only big problem with School Of Seven Bells. To adjust their material to the format of widely demanded trends, the musicians resorted to simplifying the structures of their songs and making stronger accent on dance music part with powerful basses. These reformations did not go painlessly. Some of the tracks sound as if they were taken from the first album, while the others seem much newer, which damages the cohesion of the album’s set. The experienced gained for the two last years enabled the musicians to feel more confidence and find some nerve for experimentation work to look for something not played before. At the same time, they are expected to demonstrate even more confidence on their following release. School Of Seven Bells are too hard-working and creative to be just one of many bands.