The Consultants
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The Consultants

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The best kept secret in music

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"EP Review"

review from swedish e-zine, LE MANCHESTER

THE CONSULTANTS
Demo Sampler "Learn These"
4 out of 5

"There have been several times that I've felt that I've just found my soulmate of a band. One that will beat all that has come before them, the best of the best. More often than not, they've been forgotten after a few months. Erased from my memory. The stimulating feeling that you get the first, second, or third time cools off after a few times, but it's still strong enough to make you remember how much it at one time meant. The last time that I realized this was when I heard the brilliant Consultants song "Hollow Bodied Evening" a few weeks ago. A sureshot melody, catchy lines and a heavenly voice. That was all it took to get me on my knees again. The feelings overwhelmed me, and my inner voice told me to share the kick. Brett Whitmoyer, the man behind the band, told me a while ago that they've go an album planned for Shelflife Records called "Work From Home", and that they don't really have much other material available at the moment. This news made me happy and at the same time left me longing for more. He finally buckled and sent me a sampler ep called "Learn These", which contains rough mixes of 4 of the songs that will be available on the album. In the opener, "Snow Fell (It's Night)" the listener is greeted by genuine Echo & the Bunnymen influences - shimmering guitars and the ethereal voice of singer Marisha Chinsky. A song which was originally recorded, along with the fabulous "James", when the band was still working under the jokey, temporary name of La Frendstuere. "Internal Monologue" leaves the Bunnymen influence and drops phenomenal "She's Lost Control" rhythms. Which leads us to the core - the song which I intentionally meant to dedicate this to. But the words never come out right, and they're not coming out right tonight either. My relationship to "Hollow-Bodied Evening" has been so intimate the last few weeks that I've been the one who's lost control. I haven't been able to detach the song from my total psychosis to see clearly enough. I don't believe that you can explain music, even when it's in it's simplest form. A sureshot melody, catchy lines and a heavenly voice can take over the definition of best again and again, and this is the feeling that hits me every time I listen to this song. I don't know how long it will say The Consultants when I look up the definition of best in my head, but does it even matter? How briefly something has been there doesn't matter. The definition never really goes away."
Niclas Björkdahl
2004-10-31
- Le Manchester


Discography

EP: "Learn These" Self Released
LP: "Work From Home" Shelflife Records
Listen at: http://www.theconsultantsband.com/audio.html

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Formed in Brooklyn in 2003, The Consultants are Marisha Chinsky, Brett Whitmoyer, and Mike Hollitscher. Their music is beautifully layered and cinematic, while the lyrics are a neurotic cocktail of hope and discontent.

Brett is an 80s amalgam, raised on the chiming guitars of Echo & the Bunnymen and the fluid rhythm section of New Order. Marisha is more 90s-inspired, combining the urban fantasy of The Magnetic Fields with the shoegazing Boo Radleys. Mike's palette includes shades of reggae and dub, 70s to current punk, as well as indie and electronica. These influences have combined to create the precisely constructed, melodic pop songs that make their soon to be released debut album, Work From Home, such an absolute pleasure. Look for it on Shelflife records this May.

Chinsky sings and writes most of the words, and they are often windows into a compelling world where self-confidence and self-doubt are perpetually vying for the upper hand. In The Mark, for example, she sings “Staring at your fingers - the same stale place you took yourself, so many nights ago. I’ve been here before. The sign is pointed to the door. I think I should go. It’s so hard in winter - to love the things you’re giving up. At 25 you grow”. Chinsky’s frail voice is so convincing, that the listener has no choice but to share her emotional lifeboat as it bobs precariously on the roiling sea of Whitmoyer’s brittle guitar and Hollitscher’s escape velocity bass.

Hollow-Bodied Evening sees Chinsky proving her mettle as a lead player, as she laces the intro with a dirty, yet breathtakingly melodic run of notes over Whitmoyer’s frighteningly simple, yet highly effective rhythm hook. The narrative seems to be set at one of those live-music clubs with no sign, where the boys all have ironic Sgt. Pepper mustaches and the girls all peak out from behind unkempt, pixie shags. In the second verse, a blasé Chinsky describes the fantastically mundane events of the evening: “Talked to some girl in the bathroom. Wandered around for a while. Hand stamped to smoke on the sidewalk. Avoid eye contact when you smile”.

On the instantly memorable Calling the Embassy, Whitmoyer’s glassy lead perfectly interweaves with Chinsky’s frantically strummed chords while the Motown drums and Hollitscher’s relentless bass keep the runaway train squarely on the tracks. The song is terrifyingly simple, but a clever arrangement provides plenty of whip-lash dynamic shifts, and the bop bops in the coda will certainly be burned into your brain’s auto-repeat by the end of the first listening. In fact, all of the songs on Work From Home will burrow their way into your core and hold on for dear life. Snow Fell (It’s Night) is a shimmering confection of contrapuntal melodies, while listening to Contents of My Head is akin to lying on the hood of a car at the foot of a runway while commercial airliners take off over your head. The album closes with the throbbing pulse of Talking to No One, which once again, finds our heroine a bit confused by the often opposing demands of head and heart. Lines such as “I hope you don’t call, but I want you to”, swim through the heavy water of hyper-distorted guitars and a tribal rhythm section that is a bit reminiscent of Ride’s best moments.

The Consultants are definitely a band to watch out for and Work From Home is an album that will provide essential mix-tape material for years to come. It will be released in May of 2005, by Shelflife Records.