Big Bend - “Last Circle In A Slowdown” - Shimmy Disc :: 09/13
Where cathedral lights melt into a thousand holographic chambers, whose cold splintered hallways cast a rare glimpse into the softened eyes of mere mortals on lookers, a brilliant symphony of falling trees and rushing rivers engulfs the senses like that of some orchestral oblivion. A forked tongue’s monologue echos through an eternity like that of some romantic gesture splurged on the invisible mania of the one who got away. Side eyeing the wild and wicked jungles of the mind, a blissed out memory from some tired king rings out for all creatures who are taxed with vigorous virility and lingering tension headaches to hear. A mild suffering rages across the cumbersome cranium, while a starved and thirsty spell lights up the universe during a totally eclipsed philosophy in muted miracles and meditations. Generous gems reflect a deeply profound seance during a skull bath in some mid-century study somewhere sacred in the mid-west, while a dialed deity reimburses the mothers of minerals and princesses of paralysis.
Mansfield, Ohio-based songwriter, composer and melody messiah, Nathan Phillips, known professionally as Big Bend, returns after the success and stellar impact of 2019’s “Radish”, with his much anticipated follow up entitled “Last Circle In A Slowdown”. Gracing the surface of an anatomical neighborhood someplace quiet, retro and remote, rests this angelic string of instances that Phillips so effortlessly crafts in a symbiotic space. Welding songs into holy hymns within the boundaries of an orchestral oblivion, Big Bend breaths this almost luxurious breath of relaxed oxygen into a fire that ultimately loosens the skull apparatus for a total spiritual listening, no matter where you are, or what you are. Where the beach meets the charred sand that was once collected by those who spoke with muted lips, while shooting ancient, visceral versus from the damaged hip, this monumental sound rises from the land of bones and musical risk with a force like that of the precious peers that once inhabited our stages in a past life. We’re among Phillips and his calculated choruses of calming, yet rejuvenating approach to the cautious craft of songwriting. The moments held between stinging fingers, loosen as we near its belligerent core of expert style and perfect performance via the poetic portal.
“Last Circle In A Slowdown” is a remarkable body of work that faithfully reflects the world and our place in it. A romantic gesture to the strides we make during our journey as mere mortals occupying half unopened, flesh suits delivered down by the blinding light from heaven above. Phillips’ abilities as a songwriter and even more importantly, a composer, transcends the aftermath of birth and straight into the coexisting realm of afterlife metaphysics. A muscle of magic that has been challenged and expressed since the dawn of man, Big Bend reports their humble findings during a seamless quest of both personal and private discovery. The album’s opener as well as first single, “Wheeling”, pairs well with a ricocheted fruit from the Garden of Eden as it clears the hungry birds of a fictional sky, while their feathers fall softly to the earth to then be collected for the first writings expressing cosmic confusion and the bewilderment of reality.
With tracks such as “Fast Moon”, the album’s title track and “Rolling Chair” all spiraling downward into a vertical vessel of visual sorcery, one can’t help but recall a memory passed down from one subconscious mind to the next in some possible effort to reclaim the body back from temptation, trauma and love’s wicked bite. Phillips is a master of his craft and “Last Circle In A Slowdown” is just a mere example of the musicians' ability to conjure such unique and grandiose songs from the busted heart of the human experience. A telepathic walk through reflection and the rhetorical racing of the mind, Big Bend delivery yet another devastatingly brilliant record that will stand the test of time like no other.
