Paper Beat Scissors – Parallel Line
Forward Music Group – 13 September 2019
Sometimes you hear music and are just forced to shiver, not because the music is scary, but you have heard something totally unexpected causing a visceral reaction. When I finally “heard” Paper Beat Scissors’ Parallel Line I had that reaction. This simple folk music had suddenly unwoven layers and layers of sound. Parallel Line suddenly opened up, the sound came tumbling out revealing the breadth and depths of this “simple” music.
Tim Crabtree wasn’t confident in his own voice and while he’d been in bands for seven years, it wasn’t until he was 21 that he was confident enough to sing lead. Yet on Gun Shy there’s still a vocal feeling of insecurity in the falsetto, yet the singer changes voice to state, “See now, all that comes off when we pour out the venom we’ve known.” It’s a pivotal moment in the song before veering back into falsetto.
Taking a shot at the hypocrisy infecting how we live our lives less than authentically, Don’t Mind initially masks its venom with a Joni Mitchell-ish guitar lick. Crabtree sings, “Big wounds in your short lives. Don’t mind me, I’m just saying goodnight. Bet you can’t tell what comes out of my mouth was it wizened pearls, was it turpentine?” Awkwardly angled keyboards enter before strings re-centre the closing musical phrases.
Blending instruments in unexpected ways, Crabtree uses string arrangements to underscore pointed lyrics, masses voices playing with the sonic landscape and leaving listeners breathless. Grace opens with a string quartet before peeling back to guitar and vocals. Before long the strings reenter, eventually taking centre stage.
In just 28-seconds Crabtree’s Anything performs a musical palette cleaning, using baritone saxophone and clarinet to refocus expectations for the second set of songs on Parallel Line. Shapes is a song being pulled in two directions simultaneously. French horn and pedal steel pull one way, while bass, drums and piano provide a counterpoint, as Crabtree vocalizes the problematic nature of things, “I want it all. I want none.”
Closing Parallel Line, Little Sun opens with an unruly blend of vibes, piano and drums. The entrance of strings seems to re-contextualize the proceedings, as the song seems to fade away. Yet the piano insistently returns creating a new sense of purpose.
Paper Beat Scissors generates it’s own musical language, creating unusual contexts and developing new ways to explore the soundscape. Tim Crabtree challenges listeners to hear the music that exists within the notes, in the process re-examining who we are and what we think.
Pre-Order Parallel Line: Bandcamp | Amazon
Upcoming Live Dates
For Full Details and Ticket Links – http://paperbeatscissors.com/live/
SOLO DATES
11/10 – London, UK: St. Pancras Old Church *
13/10 – Milton Keynes, UK: The Stables *
14/10 – Nottingham, UK: Jam Cafe
15/10 – Leeds, UK: Oporto *
16/10 – Newcastle, UK: Cluny 2 *
17/10 – Chester, UK: St. Mary’s Creative Space *
18/10 – Bristol, UK: Crofter’s Rights *
20/10 – Winchester, UK: Railway Inn *
* = with Rose Cousins
CANADIAN TOUR DATES
10/24 – Toronto, ON: Monarch, 12 Clinton Street (w/Merival)
10/25 – Ottawa, ON: SAW Gallery (w/Merganzer)
11/01 – Montreal, QC: Theatre Outremont
11/07 – Halifax, NS: the Seahorse
11/08 – Moncton, NB: Tide & Boar
11/09 – Fredericton, NB: Capital Complex
11/10 – Sackville, NB: Thunder & Lightning (solo)
11/15 – Quebec City, QC: Le Knock-Out (w/L Con – solo)
Photo Credit: Stacy Lee