School of Seven Bells
Disconnect From Desire
[Vagrant/Ghostly International]

To say that listening to the second full-length release from the Brooklyn-based trio School of Seven Bells is akin to falling asleep for fifty minutes is neither misrepresentative nor disrespectful. Whether or not guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Benjamin Curtis and the twin sister vocalists Alejandra and Claudia Deheza are willing to outwardly express it, their collective intention for this record seems to have involved surrendering their individual identities in an effort to lead an audio tour through a dream free from the restrictions of the material world.

With Disconnect from Desire, the group provides far more than ambient, reverberating guitar tracks over looped mechanical drums to induce self-examination and mind expansion among listeners. While the mix on most songs remains fog-thick with electronic and organic instruments, as well as stacks of wispy vocal harmonies, each song’s lyrics stand out like lights lining Dream Land’s airport runway, guiding listeners through safe takeoffs and landings on their exploration of the semi-conscious state of being. Essentially a two-chord song, “Babelonia” generates a broad and building sonic landscape over which Alejandra and Claudia’s voices angelically soar, proclaiming the tale of the female protagonist present in most of the album’s songs. Some may read this spiritual guide, who the lyrics describe as removed from rest of common society, as a sorry figure, but the closing lyrics reassure that all things worthy of appreciation in life are fleeting and isolated. Both the protagonist and the sun shall be “Leaving their hearts for no one/ [and] claiming no one for their own.”

In order to subvert the supposed “sophomore slump” most bands face early in their existence, the members of School of Seven Bells hoped to adopt a new approach to songwriting and collaboration in creating this CD. Disconnect from Desire gives life to an alternative reality through emotionally expository, accessible themes and lyrically inspired songs not bound by the restrictions of convention. For the time it requires to take in the ten tracks, the band’s aim, as expressed in “Camarilla”, is to cause the listener to forget about the uncomfortable limitations of the everyday and enjoy the lucid life in a place where there is “No threat of death to subdue it/no clock to look at/no body to sustain.”