(Post Rock, Ambient, Shoegaze) Jatun - Blanket of Ash - 2010, MP3 (tracks), VBR 256-320 kbps

Jatun made quite a splash at The Silent Ballet back in early 2007. From a warmly received spot on a TSB compilation, appearances in media for Nike and Helly Hansen, some encouraging words from Richard White on the self-titled debut, and an interview with Brett Spaceman filled with plenty of optimism, the Portland-based duo seemed to have the world by the tail. Since then however, the group has experienced some minor hiccups—work constraints and line-up issues forcing the departure of member Alan Grosvenor in late 2008, leaving the remaining half, Scott Worley, to soldier on under the Jatun moniker as a lone player. Now, going on 2010, the perseverance of Worley’s one-man Jatun has gifted fans with Blanket of Ash, the long-awaited follow-up to the first full-length.
While the genre boundaries were a bit of a blur at Jatun’s inception, Blanket of Ash certainly sees out its opportunity to consolidate the style Jatun works within: blending and rejuvenating shoegazing aesthetics with electronic modes of production. There isn’t a great sense that Jatun is about venturing outside the square, but the delightful electronic and synthesized inclinations carried over from the first album suit comfortably Jatun’s knack for vast, hopeful sonic landscapes. There’s not a whole heap to fault about the music on a technical level. When it comes to manufacturing accessible, epic melodies, Worley is on top of his game. The style is an adequate continuation of the what was established on self-titled—thick washes of drone battling buried, unintelligible vocals, repetitious synthesized melodies echoing the musical rhetoric of electronica, and just an overall lean towards the wistful sensibility of shoegazing/dream pop with a computerized delivery.
But bar “The Thin,” the record’s token epic number given the prestigious penultimate slot with its enormous, dense, noisy textures and bashing robotic beats, the variance of the record’s entirety is rather underwhelming. There’s no denying that what is on this record certainly works—the instrumental passages and shoegazing melodics coalescing seamlessly with the buried vocals. It just tires in its singularity and robs it of having any real edge. Repertoires of limited range that dwell on preserving one style run the risk of denying any room to experimentation and exploration, and so any perceived endeavor equates to that of merely exchanging pleasantries. The album also runs at a lean forty minutes, twenty shorter than the debut. While substance obviously trumps length in importance, as proven by The Mercury Program’s blistering albeit skimpy comeback effort, Chez Viking, couple brevity with relatively mingy variety and there is a sense that somebody will end up feeling short-changed. Though a strong style or aesthetic would always oversee any given piece by Jatun, the self-titled record did offer a bit of variety which Blanket of Ash lacks.
In the end, it really boils down to safety that’s holding Jatun from turning this into an exceptional record, instead of simply an okay one. Musical aptitude is certainly not the issue here, and to an extent neither is the music even, as strange as that may sound. More so, the issue lies in the safety with which it is executed. This is partly explains why, as impressed as we were even the project surfaced in 2007, it would be a lie to suggest Jatun was really missed in its three-year absence. To transcend momentary novelty to real impactive longevity—the kind that leaves a void in absentia rather than fade into oblivion—Worley needs to inject some fresh new life into the formula. Nevertheless, while Blanket of Ash is not a particularly emphatic statement, it’s safe to say fans of the debut who have anxiously stuck around for more of the same will not be let down.
-Mac Nguyen