Engine Kid - Bear Catching Fish

 1993; 8 tracks Bear Catching Fish is the first album of Seattle-based math rock band Engine Kid, whose prominent inspiration was the memorable math rock / post-hardcore band from Kentucky, Slint. The likenesses between the two bands, especially on this release and Slint's Spiderland, are striking. Some might go as far as to say that this album is "pure Slint worship." In my eyes (or ears), Engine Kid's affinity for the music of Slint is portrayed respectfully, and elements of jazz and doom even come into play at times. Engine Kid has released a small number of other EPs and splits, as well as a second full-length, Angel Wings.

As I listen to this I feel a sense of desperation build up in my chest, as if I were stuck inside a cabin on some lost and lonely mountainside far away from any human contact. The intense loneliness and pure weirdness of Engine Kid's musical/vocal atmosphere is beautiful and frightening. If any of you remember Spiderland's specific ambience, there is an incredible holiness, or warmth, about the feeling. It isn't something you connect with on contact, as most are averse to feelings of despair and loneliness, but I just... wonder, sometimes, if maybe that is a prospect much preferable to the fruitless seeking of happiness. I guess I'm just trying to say that Engine Kid encapsulates quite magnificently that -lost- feeling.

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