Album Review: Gambles - 'Trust'
Trust is Siskin’s soul slapped on a plate and screaming to be digested. In an interview with ‘All We Create’, he explained how the loss of a child led to the destruction of a relationship, a plethora of heartache and a strung out, adorningly bleak 12 track debut album. Strumming wearily from ‘Angel’ to ‘Animal’ and dominant with brittle vocals, Siskin plainly presents the stories he needs to tell with a series of desolate, moaning echoes. Each track creeps sleepily into the next, almost as if all twelve were instinctively written in chalk at the bottom of a well in an attempt to preserve some sanity. Throaty, almost monotonous vocals are voluminous throughout a series of splintered minor chords, which by about the third track, I realise are all travelling in the same tiresome direction. Perhaps a simple, honest album was Siskin’s intention, but as track ten- ‘265’- washes over me just as insubstantially (if not more) as the previous nine droning ballads, I begin to lose hope that the mood is ever going to pick up. Not to suggest that Siskin should be singing about rainbows and unicorns, but Trust needs a little something to give a structure to the stories he is expressing. A ledge to hang on to would be appreciated alongside the dragging cries which threaten to knock the listener over the edge during every song. Almost instantly, it becomes difficult to distinguish one song from the next. Some are so overpowered by the running trend of drawn out last words in every verse, that the uniqueness of each track fails to be acknowledged. Others start off promisingly less comparable, yet sink further into the familiar mournful cawing as the song unravels.
On the other hand, it’s arguable that Trust works solely as an expressive outlet for not only himself, but the people he is singing about. Siskin told ‘All We Create’ that “everything is in the words, the music for me is just the bed or table for them to stand on”. Once reading this, the overwhelming power of the vocals was suddenly lit from a different perspective for me. For Siskin, Gambles is not a project aspiring to reach masterpiece status, nor is he trying to change the world with his music. To him, music is a communication tool, and he most likely isn’t too bothered about giving amateur reviewers who can’t quite grip the concept of this a “ledge to hang onto”.
Gambles is honest, pure expression in the form of doomy, modest folk music. Although not to everyone’s taste, I am obliged to admit that it is a rare thing to come across a songwriter as unpretentious as Siskin, and this has gained my respect. ‘Trust’ is out September 30th. Give it a try; you might just be the audience Siskin is reaching out to.