With crushingly pretty melodies, Thor-approved feedback, loops and guitar hooks, The Four Trees transcends post-rock cliches with meticulously crafted songcraft. - SPIN
One of Boston's brightest new hopes. Caspian has something real to convey with the talent to pull it off. - The Boston Globe
A conceptual masterpiece. 9/10 - The Silent Ballet
Caspian's third attempt at sonic hegemony is Tertia - ten tracks that swirl, that twist and curl out of and into themselves, embracing the paradox of evoking the wildly specific by exploring the elusively abstract. There is a narrative, but it is spasmodic, fleeting moments, amidst songs like "La Cerva" and "Malacoda" where the instruments come together to an inextricable point, yet they seem to be uniting to deliver this: Things are about to fall apart. And then they do.
With teeth gritted tighter than previous work, "The Raven" showcases the leaden fury that weighs on the cracking atlas-spine of the album. There is something controlled about the plummet, though. It is as if the fall is really a volatile casting down of the familiar until, in "Vienna," its pieces can be quietly examined amidst the passing violence. Out of the scattered shards comes the closing "Sycamore." Beginning with the most delicate drippings of melody since their debut's "Last Rites," guitar lines weave around each other, bleeding and fading into a mosaic of polyrhythms that, for all their tribal wiliness, ceases with a single snap, soldering the instruments into something fused, smooth, new.
Tertia is, at it's blood pumping core, an aural descent through darkness towards a sun-soaked radiance. There is a sweeping sense of storytelling happening here, and fans of the band will have no difficulty assigning their own highly personal meaning to the narrative that unfolds. And yet, Tertia is also simply sixty minutes of new music written by five guys, inspired by the relentless cycle of performing on the road and experiencing a world much larger than the small oceanside town they call home. An honest reaction to life experience is being attempted, and it's taking form in a gloaming full of guitar flurries, bass throbs and pulsating, steady percussion.
Since forming in 2004 as a four-piece with no aspirations other than to create music they could collectively appreciate, the band have added a third guitarist, whose weighty presence makes its recording debut here. After playing their first show in their hometown of Beverly, Mass. five years ago, the band have been in a seemingly constant state of motion, bringing their sound well beyond borders they initially imagined, with a plan to add even more this fall.
The rain of fists that was their debut EP, You Are The Conductor, bled into the distinctive-but-circular tone poems of their first full-length, The Four Trees. Now, Tertia. One word meaning 'three' - the sum is merely an echo of its parts, the parts always aching--or, at least trying--to be one.
Caspian Live!
USA
Jul 24 2009 THE ENGINE ROOM Manchester, NH
Aug 26 2009 GILBERT'S IRISH PUB Camden, Maine
Aug 27 2009 SPACE GALLERY Portland, Maine
Aug 28 2009 STUDIO AT WEBSTER HALL New York, NY
Aug 29 2009 TT THE BEARS Cambridge, MA
European Tour
Sep 2 2009 HAUS 73 Hamburg, Germany
Sep 3 2009 NATO Leipzig, Germany
Sep 4 2009 AJZ TALSCHOCK Chemnitz, Germany
Sep 6 2009 DOT CLUB Berlin, Germany
Sep 7 2009 BLUE NOTE Poznan, Poland
Sep 8 2009 UCHO Gdynia, Poland
Sep 9 2009 PROGRESJA Warsaw, Poland
Sep 10 2009 MANNGHA Krakow, Poland
Sep 11 2009 TROMBA Tczew, Poland
Sep 12 2009 MAGASIN 15 Trollhättan, Sweden
Sep 16 2009 CLUB ASTORIA Södertälje, Sweden
Sep 18 2009 STUDENTERHUS Aarhus, Denmark
Sep 19 2009 VEGA Copenhagen, Denmark
Sep 20 2009 INCUBATE FESTIVAL Tilburg, Netherlands
Sep 21 2009 DRUCKLUFTHAUS Oberhausen, Germany
Sep 22 2009 VORTEX Siegen, Germany
Sep 23 2009 DE KLINKER Aarschot, Belgium
Sep 24 2009 MTC Köln, Germany
Sep 25 2009 MUZIEKGIERJJ Maastricht, Netherlands
Sep 26 2009 VERA Groningen, Netherlands
Sep 28 2009 BARFLY London, UK
Sep 29 2009 BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB Leeds, UK
Sep 30 2009 CLUB REVOLUTION Peterborough, UK
Oct 1 2009 MEZE LOUNGE Newport, UK
Oct 3 2009 MJC Colmar, France
Oct 10 2009 PIPPO STAGE Bolzano, Italy
Oct 12 2009 HAFENKNEIPE Zurich, Switzerland
Oct 13 2009 CHELSEA Vienna, Austria
Oct 14 2009 CHAPEAU ROUGE Prague, Czech Republic
Oct 15 2009 GRAF HUGO Feldkirch, Austria
Oct 16 2009 WERKSTATT Chur, Switzerland
Oct 17 2009 BEATPOL Dresden, Germany
Oct 18 2009 FORUM STADPARK Graz, Austria
Oct 19 2009 GLOCKENBACHWERKSTATT Munich, Germany
Oct 20 2009 JUGENDDHAUS WEST Stuttgart, Germany
Oct 21 2009 ELFER Frankfurt, Germany
Oct 22 2009 NEXUS Braunschweig, Germany
Oct 23 2009 AMP Munster, Germany
Oct 25 2009 AN CLUB Athens, Greece
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