The Basement Paintings
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2011
Music
Press
"These ideas are then strung together with similar sounds and feelings to create richly woven sonic tapestries, made evident in one of the band’s first songs, dubbed “Adult Male Beluga Whale.” With its creeping guitars and rich, grounding percussion, the song weaves through deep, oceanic imagery, and showcases the ability of The Basement Paintings as instrumental raconteurs. To be sure, although the process may be tedious, the attention to detail serves them well, surfacing all throughout their body of work." - Willow Grier - Beatroute Magazine
"On disc, the group bends several genres into a massive palette of heaviosity. Combining prog, metal and ambient textures, The Basement Paintings add several unorthodox instrumental flourishes that keep the album from bottoming out with sludge and doom. Regardless, the album is very much centered around complex guitar riffs and leads, allowing the rhythm section to fill in the gaps. On the track “Sharp & Dull”, spacey noises permeate throughout grinding bass riffs while never losing a sense of groove." - Chris Morin - Ominocity
"Turning to Aaron Harris – the drummer for the now-defunct California-based post-metal band ISIS – to provide album mixes, the four-piece lay down increasingly complex riffs that showcase the band’s endless well of songwriting virtuosity and formidable sense of dynamics. Very much looking forward to hearing what they come up with next." - Chris Morin - Ominocity
Discography
2013 - Self Titled
2014 - Time Lapse City
2015 - Mystic
Photos
Bio
Conceived in the near hypothermic prairies of Saskatchewan, The Basement Paintings overall sound can be categorized into ambient and post-metal genres. Drums and bass pound the low end of the frequency range, while the slithering reverberations of the string section widen the spectrum to exhaustive levels of grandiosity. The band’s latest release, “Mystic”, is an attempt to abandon their prog and metal roots, and enter the vast, desolate wilderness of drone induced comatose.
Forming in the winter of 2011, The Basement Paintings quickly got to work recording a full length debut album which was released in March of 2013 along with a video for the single "Desert Surfer". The follow up EP, titled "Time Lapse City" was released in March of 2014. Featuring a collaboration with Aaron Harris (ISIS, Palms), the EP marks a major step in the evolution of the band, and the refinement of their sound. This stacked roster earned them a spot in “Ominocity’s Top Local Albums of 2014”.
“Mystic” was recorded in Saskatoon by Barrett Ross, Mixed by Chris Douglas at Sun Temple Studios and mastered by Harris Newman (Godspeed You Black Emperor) at Grey Market Mastering. Exploring the theme of the human experience and the pursuit of knowledge, “Mystic” reunites the listener with their most primordial state of being, as if somehow it had always existed in them. Peppered with impenetrable walls of sludge and reckless ambient crescendos, the album is a testament to the bands devotion to the muse and her defiance of musical norms.
Band Members
Links
