No Flashlight: Songs of the Fulfilled Night
P.W. Elverum & Sun, 2005
rating: 5/5
reviewer: mr p


It wasn't until the 20th Century when philosophers and theorists began taking culture seriously. While the hard sciences pointed toward a world with advanced weapons and defense mechanisms, the study of culture pointed toward a world where weapons and shields were rendered obsolete. Nowadays, a critique of power politics often goes hand-in-hand with a critique of culture -- critical theory, feminism, postmodernism, post-structuralism -- the esoterica of cultural studies is infiltrating the mainstream, if only in manageable sound bytes. And with powerful trade groups (RIAA) and institutions (Clear Channel, Ticketmaster), the perpetual handshake of corporations and politicians, and increased control of ownership and distribution methods (label mergers, exclusive deals with Starbucks), the moral and ethical bankruptcy of today's music world is reflected in the sounds we consume. It's becoming harder and harder to separate the distracting reek of mainstream culture from the war on Iraq

But this emphasis on culture is getting out of hand. The postmodern tendency to blame everything on culture or to claim everything is culturally constructed or to say "that's the way things are, deal with it" is shortsighted at best; it's a resignation that ignores not only the limits of nature and its incentive for human agency, but also the motivation to create change. With No Flashlight: Songs of the Fulfilled Night, the first 'proper' release under the Mount Eerie moniker, Phil has recorded an album that penetrates what culture often ignores, denies, or attempts to leave out altogether. He refuses to actually give what this is a name, because, well, it isn't necessarily a thing. It's not something you can put under a microscope; it's intangible, it has no shape, it can't be named. The moment you name it is the moment you kill it. In fact, Phil doesn't use the word culture (sometimes referring to it as "the romance"), and instead describes the lesson of No Flashlight as "another world inside this one."

What Phil seems to be trying to convey is that this media-saturated, hyper-commodified world we live in is what we tend to call 'reality,' and we accept this version of the world as truth because we simply don't know any better. But this 'reality' is ideological, mythological, illusionary, and constructed. What is being ignored, then, is what Phil ambiguously refers to as the night, or what could more appropriately be called an absence of our constructed 'reality.' So: instead of using a flashlight at night, Phil says "no flashlight." With no flashlight, you'll be that much closer to 'seeing' through ideologies and constructions, to see the "the pregnancy of night." You're on the right track, for example, if you can crawl in the dark without seeing it as 'undignified' to do so. However, just because so much of what we know is culturally constructed, doesn't mean we should retreat into the woods. Phil says you have to be honest with yourself, which is why he'll sing his songs "in the parking lot." Essentially, no flashlight means seeing the world with a new perspective. "Every camping trip must end, but the feeling is permanent."

The meaning of the album is described in much greater (and much better) detail in No Flashlight's huge foldout artwork (5 ft. x 3.5 ft). With track explanations, lyrics, photos, and excerpts from other sources, Phil is obviously trying to communicate a particular message with little abstraction. He's taking this opportunity to share with us something special to him, and he's doing so in the most honest way he can. As he says in the first song, "I Know No One," misunderstandings are inevitable. It's very possible that the interpretations above are far off, but No Flashlight encourages listeners to at least think about what they mean. Lyrics often seem so arbitrary, abstract, or poetic that any attempt at interpretation is like building a house on sand. No Flashlight's lyrics are still offered poetically, but the album notes engage you to think critically.

Because of Phil's overtness, diatribes cast at his newer songs (post-Mount Eerie, the album) claim his music is too self-referential, too reflective. In "I Know No One," for example, Phil begins the album by actually singing about singing songs, saying "no one has ever asked what does Mount Eerie mean" and discussing what No Flashlight is going to be about. Furthermore, "(2 Lakes)," "(2 Mountains)," and "(2 Moons)" have the same melody and structure; "No Inside, No Out" has a chord progression used throughout Little Bird Flies into a Big Black Cloud; "In the Bat's Mouth" has a guitar line that mimics a vocal line from both "Who" and "I'll Shut Up"; two songs are called "No Flashlight"; and six songs from the album have Phil singing "in soooooooooooong!" He even acknowledges his own hypocrisies in "Stop Singing" (which also has the same melody and chords as "The Boom") and reexamines his past in "What?" (which has the same melody and chords as "Cold Mountain Songs 286"). So, yes, there's a lot of overt self-referencing and reflection. But it'd be dishonest if he tried to create the illusion that these songs came to him from some holy inner spirit. He's a human being writing songs, and he's not ashamed to write a song about it. And that's about as honest as songwriting gets.

So, following Phil's lead, I'm a reviewer writing about Mount Eerie's No Flashlight. The illusion that a critic is actually saying anything decisive or final is puerile. I could bore you with my list of favorite songs, lyrics, moments, etc on the album; or I could cleverly describe what the music sounds like and how it differentiates between songs written under The Microphones moniker; or I could talk about his use of a cardboard box and 5-gallon water bottles to create the music. But my subjective tastes, aesthetic leanings, and descriptive abilities are simply inconsequential to what No Flashlight is all about. I'd much rather urge everyone interested to purchase this self-released album, not to just download it. Only through the album's notes can you begin to appreciate what Phil is trying to say, and listening to the music as if it were some self-contained thing devoid of any context is to also live under the ideology of musical convention. It's not just for commodity fetishists. No Flashlight is the most sincere album I've heard in so long that it fills me with a joy that couldn't possibly only come through the music. Only through the entire package -- the artwork, liner notes, the music on both vinyl and CD -- am I able to truly feel connected to Phil, and I'm glad it doesn't have to be a superficial, illusionary attachment.

Phil once posted, on Tiny Mix Tapes, that writing about music and talking about bands is "dumb." In many ways, it can be. But writing about music is not just about describing the sounds and saying whether it's 'good' or 'bad' (though, this way of writing can be significant, too). It's also about critique, expression, reflection, analysis, sharing; about exposing ideologies, the ability to discern,  thinking about why music means this or that, how it became that way, how this meaning is reproduced through our musical choices and aesthetic tastes, and how this reflects the status quo. Writing about music with an emphasis on independent music is about not letting four major labels tell you what to listen to, or letting our backwards economic system produce starving artists. Music is not something that should be judged in merits of itself, doing handstands on a pedestal as if it were only "created" to be bought, sold, and subsequently admired. By composing music, performing music, talking about music, and writing about music, we're really engaging ourselves in cultural meaning, signification, and a broader process of human capacity. There, now Phil has tried to explain something to me, and I have tried to explain something to him. We're that much closer to understanding each other.

1. I Know No One
2. I Hold Nothing
3. The Moan
4. In the Bat's Mouth
5. No Inside, No Out
6. (2 Lakes)
7. Stop Singing
8. No Flashlight
9. (2 Mountains)
10. The Air in the Morning
11. The Universe is Shown
12. What?
13. How?
14. No Flashlight
15. (2 Moons)