Six Parts Seven: Casually Smashed to Pieces

The Six Parts Seven
Casually Smashed to Pieces
Suicide Squeeze

A gently atmospheric, post-rock, chamber-country collective from Kent, Ohio, The Six Parts Seven incur an awful lot of adjectives for a band that doesn’t deal in words. Formed over a decade ago by brothers Allen and Jay Karpinski, “6P7” share a hometown with The James Gang, a split EP with The Black Keys (2003), and a record label with Minus the Bear. Crushing the theory that you are whom you run with, however, they don’t sound remotely like any of those bands.

Casually Smashed To Pieces is the fifth full-length from The Six Parts Seven, but it runs more like a lengthy EP, clocking in at just over thirty minutes. The swiftness of the record speaks to its likable lack of self-indulgence, a notable characteristic that ought to help 6P7 separate themselves a bit more from the unavoidable holy trinity of instrumental indie rock giants: Mogwai, Tortoise, and Godspeed You Black Emperor. Of course, fans of those three bands—especially in their mellower incarnations—will still like what they’re hearing here (shimmering guitars, piano, jazzy percussion). Plus, 6P7 have upped the post-rock anti by inviting a wealth of new instrumentation into their familiar, reflective mini-soundtracks. Along the line, there are welcome cameos from the banjo (“Conversation Heart”), trumpet (“Stolen Moments”), clarinet (“Everything Wrong Is Right Again”), steel guitar (“Knock At My Door”), and just about all of the above on the fantastic, seven minute “Confusing Possibilities.”

(Andrew Clayman)


Published in The Knoxville Voice, February 2007