is this music?
written by: Robbie Ireland (issue 11, 2004)
This is a Process of a Still Life are a five piece instrumental group from Montana. On the Firefly Sessions the group mainly explore two types of song; the long and the short. The short pieces generally seem thin on ideas which makes some of the songs seem little more than doodles in music. However, when the band get to stretch themselves through a song, such as the brooding ‘No Memory of the Airshow’ or the closing track ‘Things/Cells/ Beings’, they come close to masterpieces. In these longer pieces the emotional intensity is allowed to build to greater effect and while the shorter pieces do provide some relief they miss the wide screen space and sense of movement which the band achieve so well when given the opportunity. The only exception is the beautiful ‘Pretty is Predictable’ which sounds like a lost Echo and the Bunnymen track. It’s the closest they get to a pop song contained in four minutes. Fans of both Fourtet and Mogwai will find a lot to admire here. The group have created a sound which ebbs and flows without the gut churning loudness-for-loudness-sake which Mogwai are occasionally guilty of. Which can only be a good thing.
