Cities in Dust

Hamilton, ON

http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/CITIES-IN-DUST

Genres: Alt Rock, Hardcore
Website: http://www.myspace.com/citiesindust
Email: citiesindust@gmail.com
Label: Paper Bag Records

The creation of music is a process of power and mystery. Not that rock bands are mysterious anymore – by now, anyone can imagine four lads in a basement, throwing ideas back and forth at one another, sharing guitar licks and steadying arrangements. There’s little mystery in that. The mystery lies in a deeper part of the process, the part we cannot see. Here is the point at which notes, chords, lyrics, sounds and even mistakes gel, and a song comes forward out of the chaos. At this point, music still seems a form of alchemy. The process can be so inexplicable that even those involved may not know where the music comes from. Cities in Dust know the elements, the ingredients, that go into their music – but the outcome cannot be broken back down into those elements and traced back to the source. In other words, when the four members of Cities in Dust write a song, it comes out sounding like Cities in Dust – but exactly how and why is beyond their ken. Cities in Dust found some common ground in dance punk and dance rock; yet each individual fed their own flavours into this already murky cocktail of influence. The music grew quicker, choppier, and more kinetic. Drummer Matt Winters and bassist Craig Nordemann establish a solid and thunderous bottom end that acts as ballast for Simon Toye’s wiry guitar that crisscrosses above; meanwhile, Zach Frank’s tightly wound vocal springs like an elastic band, threatening to snap should it stretch any further.