Thick with Orwellian images from 1984, Old Abram Brown trudges through a darkness of bureaucratic rot. And yet, with a sound both syrupy and sharp, the band fights back, clanging with the strain of an underground rebellion.
“Cadence on the Heavy Hand” serves as the hub of the struggle’s intellectual resistance. “There’ll be a day when the sun eclipses the moon and we’ll all be free to dance.” Printing these words for the masses, the mechanical clapping and drumming of the press provides the song with its heart. For these determined rebels there will be no respite; the enemy is always at hand as a sustained organ, authoritarian and oppressive, creates the regime against which Carson Lund must sing his echo-y manifesto.
In “Will Our Garden Grow” time has passed and with it the urgency of the resistance grows. A constant pounding riff plagues the piano, and over this marching Lund’s voice widens with a mindful vibrato to obscure his cause and divert the authorities. After the second verse, he sings the words “Hello, Hello” in what at first appears to be an attempt at appeasement and surrender. But, then a trumpet calls out from beneath a wasteland of strife, and it’s hard not to believe that Orwell’s vision, as viewed from those who fight against it, is finally upon us.
Old Abram Brown. WAR IS PEACE. Tuesday, July 6th. GOOD IS EVIL. TT the Bear’s. INJUSTICE IS JUSTICE. 9 PM.