Hi. Kiva's on this one! Send music shit and anything else you want to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
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| photos courtesy of Partyteeth. |
Hi, Kiva again. I’m very excited to write about this project from Partyteeth. I’ve never longed to learn from a project this much until this.
Anon starts with shakers and a soft acoustic guitar. It feels like a walk through a meadow with a weight on me I can’t quite place. Then, the vocal layering comes in, sparingly and effectively. Kurt plays the guitar like no one else. It’s not just the notes that hit you when he plays. There are many tasteful gaps in this song and project as a whole. Kurt’s vocals sit very much atop the rest of the track which I’m not as used to but sound so good in this project. “On and on anon…” “What does that shame do for you? Well it’s everything.” “…if you’ve got somewhere to be you just might get moving.” So many lines of this song stand out for me. The almost twangy guitar he incorporates adds this edge to the otherwise pure beauty.
Scattershot. The intro to this is so melodic and immediately makes me feel as though I’ve run into someone I love that I don’t necessarily want to see again. “Who am I if I’m not that voice inside my head,” sits as a thickly layered section. Kurt’s voice feels so effortlessly perfect, like he was ensured to be given the tools necessary to tell his story. The gaps in instrumentals and vocals are powerful. The lyrics beg the question: are we our worst thoughts? Our worst decisions? But his apathetic despair feels like confirmation that it can’t be true. We just have to figure out what to do about it. “Cattle drive them all away, pile drive them all away,” paired with an upturn in melody and speed feels as though he’s driving away my most desperate of thoughts. He then goes into a section of spoken word with minimal guitar: “Has been happenstance… I gave up on sleep just for the fever… it’s about all I can do to notice this room.” So many lines that sting like needles once again. Listen listen listen listen THERE IS POWER TO THIS POVERTY. House In A Sack is one of the few projects I feel studious listening to--I have something to learn here and I know it.
Grammarless is a purely spoken word track. “Head fucked chaos fire and flame,” slams you into your seat every time. This track feels like a shamed admission of a man who knows he cannot be damned regardless. It is what it is.
Roomer's guitar moves you. It flows as a river, sometimes the bending is rougher on the land it runs through. “I’m pandering, my second wind. Won’t be long here 'til I dive in, try to fake like I can swim.” The layering is what would be used mostly on guitars to distinguish sections, though here its on the vocals. “I’m not homeless, I just won’t go home.”
Periphery might have my favorite intro on the whole project. All of these songs could seamlessly flow together, but they each feel strikingly different. The harmonic accents add so much to the feel of this song. Kurt reaches much higher notes vocally on this track, though maintaining this feel of ease. I’ve never heard him strain on recordings or live--he was crafted for this and crafted it for himself.
Stigmata's beginning feels like when a daughter dies of TB in an old western. “Don’t wanna be here, don’t wanna leave.” One of my favorite lines returns: “There is power to this poverty.” We’re then introduced to my other favorite line: “I live in the moon where I sleep next to you.” About midway through, the playing becomes more minimal while maintaining the same feel--it’s almost a stripped down version of the beginning, which forces you to pay attention to what he’s saying. “Believe me I’m a world or two away.” The instrumental fullness returns with more sparing vocals. He transitions so seamlessly between spoken word and a more sing song vocal style. Drips, drips, drips… sigh. Every time he hits those lower registers, paired with the slow strumming, it gives me the chills. Sigh.
Ideology is my favorite song of the album by far. The rhythm carries you as a horse would trot--up down up down but straight nonetheless. “Set it on fire.” The harmonic accents shine through again on this song. “Opposable thumbs and some rhetoric.” The climbing sections that come in halfway through feel like walking up a ladder that isn’t propped up against anything, just climbing to float in the air. He rarely matches vocals to the exact cadence of the guitar, but here he does and it makes every note hit you square in the chest. This song feels nihilistic and not just because of the lyrics. “Best mind my ps and my qs no telling what I might..”
Funeral. It ends on another solely vocal piece: “Found a fallen nectarine and tore its lifeless body limb by limb and devoured it whole. The only way to do everything.” This line makes me think of the fruit tree outside of Kurt’s house, surrounded by rotted pomegranates. Most would say the only way to do anything, but there’s an obvious choice in the word, “everything.” “I think it’d sure be nice to occupy my own ribs again.”
All in all, this project is one of my favorite releases in a very long time. It’s a shorter blog for me because I feel so much of the value in this project lies in the individual listener. So much cannot be explained for this album, it just must be heard. Kurt’s words will strike everyone at different times and in different ways. Kurt is such an inspirational musician, lyricist and human being. I urge you all to snag a copy of his cassette and the zine he handmade which features all of his lyrics. Follow Partyteeth, see him if you can, and support Kurt.
10/10
Stream House In A Sack.
-Kiva
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