Ilad

New Style Weekly Review of National Flags

Ilad, "National Flags"

Richmond's own Ilad takes cues from smooth and ambient jazz, pop and a few other genres the foursome discover in their improvising. They're not above sampling the work of others, either, especially for a message. The second track, "D.O.I.," is the Declaration of Independence, as in the one written by Thomas Jefferson, set to haunting smooth rock. Most of the songs combine an ethereal mood with almost-whispered vocals by Gabe Churray, backed up by Cameron Ralston (bass) and Clifton McDaniel (guitar).

One of the standout tracks is "Looking Glass," which showcases Scott Clark's crackling, military jazz drumming, packaged within mellow, thinking man's pop. You can't get too comfortable, though, because the next track, "You Don't Need That Shit," picks up the pace and ends up wailing with some Ornette Coleman freestyle dissonance courtesy of McDaniel's guitar.... — Sarah Moore
- Style Weekly

Ink 19

ILAD
"The Spoon"

syjip records

The Spoon deposited instant images of 10,000 rain drops falling and freezing on a panoramic slab of glass, instantly transporting my psyche to another place that was cold and detached, but nonetheless hard to leave. This may sound a little out there and existential, but it's the very thing the Ilad seems to be after (they politely apologize for it on the small slip of paper that came with the CD). The Spoon is dripping with moments of intense introspection and indecipherable albeit understandable lyrical expressions that communicate a concern for the world that surrounds this quartet from Richmond, Virginia.

This 8 track offering drifts back and forth between avant-garde jazz rock and electronic interstellar lounge/jazz jams. The melodies engulf and it's nearly impossible to fight the desire to get lost in the tracks. I can forgive the touch of overindulgence because the vibes deliver a sonically satisfying helping of what it might be like if Edger Allen Poe and Ray Bradbury got together, formed a band, built the recording studio on Mars and elected the musical spawn of the Band of Gypsies-era Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane to produce it. The Spoon was transported to listeners last year and the group plans to dispatch their second offering sometime in 2007.
Ilad: www.iladmusic.com

Chris Catania
- Ink 19

By Maggie Serota
Posted: August 15, 2007


Songs titled after the Declaration of Independence seem more likely to be found blaring in the background of a pickup ad than on an album of downtempo jazz-rock. In fact, Ilad’s spacey soundscapes would be more at home backing some dystopian, Philip K. Dicknesque sci-fi epic. Granted, the Richmond, Va., band’s sparse, postrock-influenced output raises suspicions that songs such as “D.O.I.” are actually Tortoise tracks with lyrics, albeit lyrics that are understated and, at times, barely audible, creating more of an atmosphere than a narrative. So the fact that Tortoise’s John McEntire mixed and recorded 2007’s National Flags at his Soma Studios should surprise no one, but what remains perplexing is how the quartet has managed to quietly put out two solid albums only to remain shrouded in relative obscurity...

- Washington City Paper

By OTIS R. TAYLOR JR. - otaylor@thestate.com
“D.O.I.,” a swanky, mid-tempo jazz elegy, is atypical of music calling on listeners to rally for causes, political or otherwise.

In fact, it doesn’t try to rally; it doesn’t ask for support. If anything, “D.O.I.,” written by Virginia-based band Ilad — which performs tonight at Hunter-Gatherer — saunters like an apolitical record.

One thing, though: the words were written by T. Jefferson, as in founding father Thomas Jefferson. “D.O.I.” is an acronym for one of this country’s most revered documents, the Declaration of Independence.

“We were kind of talking about the current times and how things are and how it was (back in 1776) and what prompted them to write the Declaration of Independence,” drummer Scott Clark said of the song’s origin.

Clark said the members of Ilad — which include bassist Cameron Ralston, guitarist Clifton McDaniel and Gabe Churray, who sings and plays the “Churray Station” (more on that later) — “are so immersed in what was and is happening.”

Such as war and an upcoming election with what seems like more players than at the World Series of Poker.

A politically-tinged tune was inevitable, right?

“Things are kind of crazy right now,” Clark said. “When (‘D.O.I.’) came about, that’s what we were thinking.”

It’s “D.O.I.,” though, that makes the listener do the thinking. Unlike megastars such as Bruce Springsteen (Vote For Change Tour), Conor Oberst (“When the President Talks to God”) and P. Diddy (Vote or Die) who campaign with their own (anti-) slogans, Ilad is subtle in its approach.

“That’s what’s kind of nice about it,” Clark said. “We’re not trying to do it so that it’s in your face.”

Instead, the band wants people to realize themselves that they’re singing the Declaration of Independence (“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary...”) — not that many people nowadays have the document memorized.

“It’s a pretty heavy document when you read it,” Clark said. “You read it in elementary school, but you can’t really grasp it.”

Ilad’s embrace of politics continues beyond “D.O.I.,” as the band’s recent release is titled “National Flags.” Clark said the band wasn’t trying to write a political record; its hometown is Richmond, and the proximity to Washington, D.C., might have unconsciously propelled the theme.

“Maybe,” Clark said. “It wasn’t so much thinking ‘let’s write this’. I think it’s more of a reflection of where we’re at.”

“National Flags” is also an atypical indie record. The songs migrate from ambient textures into jazz-like movements. The Churray Station, which is a Fender Rhodes piano, Juno 60 synthesizer and laptop that Churray plays as if it’s one instrument, brilliantly fogs Ilad’s arrangements.

Political themes can be a little much “if somebody keeps putting it down your throat,” as Clark said. But that’s what the election coverage, with the White House up for grabs, is going to do.

Who knows what the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence imagined this country would be like more than 200 years later?

The imagination in the “D.O.I.” is enough to ponder.

- The State (Columbia, SC)

Ilad — This Richmond, Va., quartet first assembled in 2004 to determine whether rock, jazz and electronic disciplines of music could harmoniously co-exist — and not in a John Tesh or Yanni kind of way. Ilad emerged in 2006 with the full-length Spoon, which laid the groundwork for Ilad’s downbeat studies. For its next trick, it entered John McEntire’s SOMA Electronic Studios in Chicago (where luminaries such as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Bright Eyes, Joan of Arc, Spoon, Tortoise, and Wilco have recorded) this past December to record its follow-up. National Flags was released July 3 and, according to the band, is a “crushing beauty in reverse chronology, exotic blossoms suspended in time on repeat, transient vibrating light dust tone blooms disappearing into density at full capacity, twitching optic activity electric and free.” I like what I’ve heard, at least. - Free Times

Ilad
National Flags

SYJIP

Crisp and popping snares lead the way as spacey keyboards blips and beeps knead into warm and fuzzy organs floating on flowing jazz-rock rhythms swimming within Ilad’s second full-length album National Flags. It’s a more refined enhancement to the predecessor The Spoon in 2005 as the Virginia quartet retains the previous existential atmospherics and their strength to create a rich meditative mood of simplistic and progressive rock chords, space jazz improvisations and covert country and at times clandestine bluegrass rhythms.
The ten tracks, as before, find their strength in the deep trips to a land of psychedelic improvisational jazz. There’s a keen track-to-track progression, alternating from the rapid syncopated to the slower more melodic, making each song more pronounced and gorgeous. Towards the album’s end, “Holy Wars” finds Ilad kicking up the tempo and getting overtly political but for the most part the muddled and blurry lyrics on National Flags required careful deciphering and multiple listens.
National Flags was recorded at Chicago’s Soma Studios and mixed by John McEntire who's previously worked with Tortoise and The Sea and Cake. The recording environment and creative direction seems to have rubbed off on the experimental jazz-rock fusion vision of the Richmond, Virginia quartet. Much of the album induces a mellow sorrow, putting you into somewhat of a detached state of mind that is both addictive and seductive. And it’s the tenacious and so-well-done-you-forget-about-it time keeping of drummer and songwriting anchor Scott Clark who leads you into a subterranean inner space sequel to Spoon, adding more musical emotion, giving National Flags a deeper, more balanced resonance via more structured songwriting. It’s a fine follow up to The Spoon and exactly what I hoped -- with a few surprises -- would happen when I swallowed my first serving of Ilad last year.
Ilad: www.iladmusic.com

Chris Catania - INK 19

Ilad
National Flags
Independent



Based in Richmond, Virginia, Ilad is a quartet of four young men with a penchant for drifting electronica and moody, spaced-out, pseudo-jazzy sounds. With National Flags, their sophomore release, they continue to build on this sound, fusing ethereal, mumbling, Lennon-esque vocals with soft, acid-jazzy instrumentals and, on the song “D.O.I.” at least, the words of Thomas Jefferson. It’s an experimental sound, but one that’s somehow simultaneously immediately familiar and comfortable. The album’s like taking a cool shower on a hot day: not exactly exciting and often barely stimulating, but just so necessary and good, and you come out feeling clean. Hear for yourself at www.iladmusic.com.

- James Sandham - Spill Magazine