SOTD: School of Seven Bells - 'My Cabal (Robin Guthrie Mix)' from My Cabal 7" (2007)
I hope School of Seven Bells know they created something special when they released the 'My Cabal' 7" single in May 2007. I found the song in the now-defunct Rough Trade digital store released by the Sonic Cathedral Records label. I was intrigued when I saw a Robin Guthrie Mix included with the single. While the presence of the ex-Cocteau Twin does not guarantee quality, his involvement meant I was definitely going to listen to this.
School of Seven Bells formed when Benjamin Curtis (ex-Secret Machines) met twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, formerly of On! Air! Library! while their bands were opening on an Interpol tour. The band is named after the School of the Seven Bells, a mythical South American pickpocket training academy. The first thing heard on the original mix is an insistent electronic beat. A few seconds later the percussion kicks in followed by keyboards with vocals. As the song comes into focus, one realizes the insistent beat blends to become one with the rest of the music. And that seems to be part of the mission of SVIIB: to create complex layers of sound and let the listener find their way through the bliss. The Guthrie Mix of 'My Cabal' goes even further to wrap everything in thick layers of gauze, and softens the original version quite a bit. It reminds me a bit of what he did with Lush on their Spooky album. The sharper edges get the treatment much like a gemologist might use a rock tumbler to smooth a stone. Left is the essence of the original, but it is perhaps even more beautiful. It is easy to see how School of Seven Bells has been lumped in the with the new wave of shoegaze bands after hearing this and their 2008 album Alpinisms. The shoegaze tag can also be understood when watching the band in concert (or the video below). The Deheza twins have those soft, doe-like eyes à la Bilinda Butcher (My Bloody Valentine). But even more than the look the dense sonic wall of sound is appropriate. It will wrap you up and draw you in, which is not a bad thing at all. In fact, these days it's pretty dang special.
(download)
(For what it's worth, the Alpinism version of 'My Cabal' is much closer to the one in the video. All are different and add to the mystique of the song in my opinion.)
Steve Bingham
