Silas Ciarán
Happy Songs For Happy Children
Released by Small Doses | 3" CD-R | 2009
Written by William Bowers
I’ve been a fan of the works of Silas Ciarán for a little over a year now. We first started communicating just as I began to delve into noise and compose my own music full-time. I became a huge fan of Mr. Ciarán at first listen and I can say with little ego that I have heard more than the typical listener has heard from him. That being said, "Happy Songs for Happy Children” is by far the most bizarre, terrifying, and colorful albums I have heard from Silas.
"Happy Songs" combines strange samples, ear shattering volumes and effects to produce an EP of demonic songs fit for a preschool in Auschwitz. You are pulled in by the psychedelic guitar work of “The Sweetest Kisses Are Found in Gold Chapels” and a bit of a perverted sermon and then thrown into a distorted folky-tune. Any Spacehog fans will appreciate the song. We are then thrown into “Dance of the Littlest Whale”, a song that could be mistaken for a Flaming Lips demo you listened to while coming down off of a 20 hit acid trip. After you think you are safe, your eardrums are bashed like a snare drum as “Vous Aimez Seulement Les Lumières De La Ville” comes in with a slowed down breakcore beat and sound samples that sound like the nightmares of a Chernobyl survivor. Then we come to my personal favorite track and the centerpiece of the album, “A Pretty Little Ditty”. The song starts as a jaunty little ditty before it is transformed into what can only be described as throbbing house music meant to induce an epileptic seizure. The beat has a mid-European feeling with vocals that I cannot find the words to describe. The song is filled with piercing screeches and sounds that will surely get you strange looks from the people around you. The sound cannot be contained to earphones, I’ve tried. As the album ties to a close, “Snowman Building Parts for Rico the Squirrel” bids us farewell in classic Ciarán fashion.
If you’ve survived this ride, you’ll be wanting more and you won’t stop until you find it.
Definitely one of the best albums of 2009.
SILAS CIARÁN online | SMALL DOSES online