South San Gabriel & Centro-Matic - Dual Hawks (2008)

Review by Ned Raggett
When is a split album not entirely a split album? Will Johnson is the connecting factor between the two bands featured on Dual Hawks, both of which are among other outlets for his muse besides his straight-up solo work, so the fact that such a release could eventually happen isn't so surprising, and couldn't be any more manna for the fans. Looked at from a more measured perspective, though, Dual Hawks is less remarkable -- no doubt that Johnson has his good qualities, but a bit like Ryan Adams, it's one of relative formalism that doesn't seem to contribute much beyond a replication of comforting styles. This is more apparently on the Centro-Matic disc, with his songs given a rough '90s indie rock-derived performance that's enjoyable but otherwise unremarkable to those not inclined to the sound -- though the final song, "A Critical Display of Snakes," manages in its huge beat and scraping violin to break the general mold well. In contrast, the South San Gabriel disc takes a much more spare and, perhaps strange to say, romantic approach -- beautiful acoustic guitar filigrees, mournful violins, stark beats, and an air of hushed melancholia, elements that recur throughout the album in varying combinations. Compositions such as "Kept on the Sly" and the wonderful "When the Angels Will Put Out Their Lights," with its compressed, murky drum attack, may in the end not venture as far from certain formal elements as the work of Centro-Matic, but the impact is richer, more deeply felt, and dramatic. Johnson should be deservedly praised for not limiting his approach, but Dual Hawks still leaves it clear which bird is the best hunter.