Ensemble Economique: "To Feel the Night as It Really Is"

It’s an awkward thing, to realize you’re suddenly less psychotic than you were six months ago. Bryan Pyle was at the center of a one-man neural eclipse when he put out Psychical last November, playing to the crowd as a bongo enthusiast who recorded while high on acetate. Now, though, he seems to have got a job, or been forced to have his hair moussed or something. “To Feel the Night as It Really Is” could easily be titled “To Fall Asleep But Then Get Woken Up Again,” especially as it sticks to such a respectable jazz formula. But if you concentrate and time how long it takes for the track to reveal layers of magic to you, you’ll see that perhaps Pyle’s not as deadpan as he seems. Perhaps he’s realized there are more ways to startle his followers than just throwing freak-folk over them like custard. Yes, he may have moved on from his ’60s festival witchcraft, but he hasn’t moved far, and still enjoys killing the odd lizard.

Noticeably calmer than the acid lashings of Psychical, the first lizard dies a full 90 seconds into “To Feel,” and continues his debut album’s mania but with a hushed, post-tablet temperament. In other words, there’s no screaming on this one, but once you get past the prolonged jazz opening Pyle soon has you lost in the fog again. Strings buzz and organs shiver, and as the hot warmth peels back into sour church vibes you can see what it is he was going for: an ensemble mellowed-out sea shanty, but a sea shanty made specifically for salt lakes so you can’t trust the tide to carry you. The one thing you can trust is bongos, however, which Pyle would never throw overboard—not even if his boat was nine-tenths sunk and sharks were eyeing up the last tenth. Good to see he hasn’t gone totally sensible, but he should be careful how he runs with this level-headedness thing. We’d hate to have him call us one day offering advice on behalf of an energy switchover service.