Hallock Hill

Collections of Colonies of Bees, “Flock I,” Birds (Table of the Elements 2008)

It is easy to run out of ideas, and musical ideas no less so than any other. This holds for players as well as listeners. It is easy to get stuck in a rut. Collections of Colonies of Bees seems to be teeming with ideas, as evidenced in this open track from their last album. This “type” of music gets all kinds of labels, from post-rock to math-rock to … The labels get to be nonsense. The strength in the ideas is felt in how they are executed, how they become emotion and feeling rather than just formula. This band, a favorite of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, excels at working around a mutlitude of concepts—instrumental, compositional and editorial in the studio. Vernon, in fact, has recorded an album with them that will be coming out later this year. The Reichian elements in both are sure to be heard. But more so, the unique principles on which all of these thinkers base their sounds.