The New Face Of Smiling

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Recorded in New Plymouth and Wellington between December 2002 and April 2004.

“Signer’s The New Face of Smiling offers an artfully constructed union of ambient electronic textures and engaging song writing, but does not escape the pathological elements of the genre some have called nu-gazing or laptop folk. There is a holy trinity here: morose, simplistic acoustic guitar phrases lasting 16 measures, repeated ad infinitum (The Father); glitched-out electronic beats (The Son); and My Bloody Valentine dreamscapes accompanied by sedate, whispered vocals (The Holy Ghost). There is no intrinsic problem with this combination, and the pastiche of influences and technologies can be transcended; Greg Davis did so recently with Curling Pond Woods, also released by Carpark. Signer, too, at times allows his compositions to evolve rather than change shape with the turning of a knob or the introduction of another acoustic guitar. On “You’re Killing Us Helen,” a short noisy loop grows in volume and depth and is met with unprocessed, scattered percussion and a scratchy, reverberating violin. Suddenly a very primitive, distorted drum beat reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle ushers in floating metallic vocals that drift over the song and depart within a minute. This point marks the only real tension on The New Face of Smiling, the most dynamic interaction between the sonic elements.”