I've been enthralled with Kalbells since hearing their Mothertime EP last year (which I reviewed here). I was pretty excited to hear that Kalbells had a full-length dropping this year, and after taking a couple of months to absorb Max Heart, I have to say that I'm as pleased with it as I was their last EP- a little more in some ways, actually. There is a calming kind of minimalism on Max Heart that carries over from their earlier work, but on this latest record, the compositions are allowed to spread out and reveal their interiority and complex web of dimensions in ways that the band had not previously explored.
In general, I appreciate the spartan approach Kalbells have to their music. I'm not sure if it's the product of judicious application or a shaving down of extraneous details to reach a bedrock of essentials. Either way, it works. They know what shape their song needs to take, and they have the courage to live with their works and share mental space with them, permitting them free-range inside their heads and nurturing them all the while until they reach their full potential. This process bequeaths to the songs on Max Heart a strong sense of purpose and the confidence they exude is very reassuring.
As previously alluded, while the songs on Max Heart still display a kind of direct and cleanly defined structure, they feel larger and deeper as well- like a big winter coat that you can fall into, and keep falling, plummeting through a dimension of warm, downy embrace.
I especially like the integration of more progressive jazz and space disco elements on Max Heart as well- Kalbells is a band that has always known their way around synthesizers and it's cool to see them realize the potential of their instruments in this way.
The final thing I want to say about Max Heart is that it is interesting to me to see a band make an album that embellishes the pleasures and rejuvenating aspects of sleep. Many bands describe the experience of dreaming through their music, but few explore the state which makes such psychological and experientially limitless tangents possible.
In a period of history when people are sleeping less than ever due to the demands of waking life and the hypnotic draw of digital firelight, indulging in a natural period of rest feels like an act of righteous disobedience. Sleep is a time when other's demands can't touch you, can't mold you, and can't bend you to their will. It is a time when you are alone and can embrace a sense of independence in this solitude. It is also part of a cycle of healing and replenishment that our bodies need in order to keep functioning. You need to sleep to live and this is something to be celebrated, as it is a state of repose that represents a kind of freedom from want and capturing of desire. I'm thankful for Kalbells for the reminder that myself, and everyone, have this subtle mechanism of soft revolt built inside of our very beings.
