ninehertz

What at first was simply a happy return for a band we’d got into from their last album Patterns in Noise quickly reveals so much more. Falcon Arrow, from Minneapolis, have created a concept album that you can totally immerse yourself within.

Receiving inspiration from Mogwai’s Zinedine Zidane film score, Falcon Arrow aimed to soundtrack a wrestling match, eventually deciding upon a Japanese pro-wrestling bout from the date of the title. I found it on YouTube (here), lined it up and pressed play on both.

Musically, this is top drawer post-rock with a healthy dose of math-rock at play. There’s one track ebbing and flowing across forty minutes, and many a nuance can be found within. But to talk only of this would be to miss the point. It is to be experienced as a collaborative multimedia experience. As you hear the crowd and Japanese commentators within the music, it quickly begins to come alive.

It feels adventurous even from an early stage. I watch along, music shimmering, and the combination works so well I feel a shiver of excitement – despite me not being a wrestling fan. The rising crowd cheers or shrieks as a move is landed gives voice to the wonderful music. The moments where the sounds match the action are all the more thrilling.

There’s an electricity generated by that attention to detail, occasionally going darker, effects sounding positively cosmic at one point, another where it feels glitchy, scratchy and loopily warped. By midway at the latest I’m as invested in this bout of over three decades ago – what are Falcon Arrow doing to me? One of them is kicking the other who lays helpless on the ground, there for the taking but then he’s got an injury and unable to finish it off. The jeopardy is built from both mediums.

This is crazy – they’ve been at this for forty minutes, both look spent – their stamina is incredible, their fatigue obviously real no matter what else is. And here I am again writing about the wrestling. It has become as one. I haven’t cared about wrestling since I was a kid and attended SummerSlam 92. As it comes to its climax, as the crowd are racked with tension and screaming, the music rises with it. It ends, one wins (with a sickening neck blow to the loser). Medics and belts rush to the ring, the drums take the lead in its crescendo. And breathe.

If only I weren’t 4000 miles away, because I’d not only be buying the cassette but would love to see this live, set against projections of the fight, as they have performed. My makeshift pairing of visual and musical will more than suffice though as a means to experience this mightily bold undertaking, with hugely successful results you can’t help but fall in love with. Try it out, because this is genuinely brilliant.