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Miles Kurosky
The Desert of Shallow Effects
By Chris Drabick
Beulah was indisputably the greatest of the second wave of Elephant 6 bands. By the time they wound down their career, Miles Kurosky and his partner Bill Swann left behind a quartet of superb full-lengths (punctuated by the punchy pop of 2001’s stellar The Coast Is Never Clear). Their heart-breaking final tour was documented on the (sadly) aptly titled A Good Band Is Easy To Kill, which should be required viewing for all young indie bands. Released in 2003, YOKO was the band’s studio swan song, and Kurosky finally breaks the Beulah-related silence with his solo debut.
The Desert of Shallow Effects was written and recorded over the six-plus years following Beulah’s demise. Health problems forced Kurosky to record in fits and starts, and frankly this might be the reason for its failure. It sounds as though the prolonged approach to recording caused Kurosky to over think this project in a major way. Rather than let his impeccable pop sense shine through, the songs are almost entirely buried under unnecessarily weighty arrangements. Witness the final two minutes of “I Can’t Swim” or the schizophrenic “Dead Language Blues” for evidence that less can be more. The time off didn’t appear to harm Kurosky’s melodic sense, as “An Apple For An Apple” could easily stand with Beulah’s finest. Too often, though, the tracks simply don’t have room to breathe under the piled-on instrumentation. Note to Kurosky for the follow-up: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
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