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Tastefully contorting and melding an eclectic jumble of genres, Billings, Montana-based quartet the 1090 Club have a sound as expansive and varied as their state’s topography. Lazy critics will be quick to categorize the band under the useless indie-rock umbrella, but the rarely invoked ambient-industrial-punk-folk-pop-rock label is far more appropriate.
S.O.S. is an album whose rock roots branch in unexpected directions. Featuring one full-time violinist and pianist, in addition to a drummer, a guitarist, and various fill-in bassists, 1090 Club uses irregular instrumentation to build lush soundscapes. Every member of the group contributes vocals too, including a welcome female presence. Individually, the vocalists are perfectly fitting without being exceptional or displaying spectacular range, but regular harmonizing and multi-tracking provides the vocals a rich sound a la Minus The Bear and Death Cab For Cutie.
1090 Club exercises diversity from track to track without becoming an incoherent mess. Songs like “Some Equals One” and “Cheers To Us” find the band doing its best Death Cab impression, layering detached, monotone vocals over simple, hypnotic melodies and light electronic elements, calming piano and violin whisking in and out. “Hooray” rises from a whisper to an all-out rocker, with punk drumming and a frantic violin that soars above the roaring guitars and multi-tracked vocals before fading back out on a whisper. “Second Hander” is a track that could easily have been awkward, with its jerky, music-to-a-strobe-light procession of heavy keystrokes and drumbeats, but smooth choruses of guitar and violin bridge the song nicely, countering the mechanical feel appropriate for a song whose lyrics mention “machines.” Similarly improbable and impressive is the Tom Waits-ish “Gypsea,” an ominous march whose throbbing bass, slow-and-steady beaten drums, and drawn-out bow strokes engage in a merciless procession, toward a sluggish guitar-laden chorus of heavy notes, distortion, and tinny vocals.
The key to appreciating the 1090 Club’s nuanced music, like nature’s subtleties, is surrendering all expectations and preconceptions, allowing the subject to expose its exquisite ripples of beauty. You’ll say, “So what if 1090 Club’s S.O.S. is a best-of Montana? It’s competing against rocks, rivers, and trees!” I say, “Have you experienced Montana’s landscape firsthand?”
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