It’s a very rare occasion that Fred and I can both be smitten by the same band at the same time. I can count on one hand the number of times that this has happened. So when it does you know it’s a special event. The band that found us on common ground this time is Her Name Is Calla.

Here at tMiM we try not to make posts personal. We try not to tell stories about ourselves in order let the music stand on its own merit. Letting you, the listener, form your own opinion instead of using ours as your base to start from. This is one instance where not making this personal may prove difficult. My apologies in advance for the first person narrative.

Lately I’ve been listening to music with my ears only instead of my heart. I hear corny lyrics, abysmal transitions and even worse progressions. I’ve become critical instead of appreciative. New tracks and band suggestions come in via email each day, most of which are scoffed at and deleted. Once in a while we’ll find the time to go out searching for ourselves and rarely will we dig up something that’s worth mentioning. Her Name Is Calla is not only worth mentioning, it’s worth screaming from the hilltops.

With the access that bands have, even in home studios, to soundboards, effects and countless other knobs and dials, it’s becoming all too common for an over produced, overly spit shined album to hit the shelves. For a production company this screams “We have lots of money to spend” and it may please lay listeners but for serious music lovers this just isn’t cutting it anymore. I want to hear emotion, I want for the song to take me to the pain, pleasure or depression that brewed it.

My Name Is Calla write complex tracks that at times sound chaotic and at other times sound as though they were drawn out to perfection. Emotion is never hidden and there is no guessing as to what spurred the creation of the song. There are multiple minutes of almost complete silence that are taken over by climaxes that build to the rafters just to bring us crashing back down to Earth again.

“Pour More Oil”, at the moment, is the stand out track from their catalog and has taken a far lead over the rest of the pack. With up to eight members in Her Name Is Calla, a window is left wide open for them to try and fill all the empty spaces with sound. Luckily this temptation is subdued. “Pour More Oil” is fully embodied, all encompassing, atmospheric and at the same time minimalistic. You hear what you need to hear and nothing more. An extra instrument line is never thrown in to prove their brilliant talent and nothing is lost in the layers. In the end this formula creates a piercing piece of music that literally reduced me to tears.

After numerous EP’s and snippets over the years My Name Is Calla is scheduled to release their first official LP titled The Quiet Lamb via Denovali Records on October 22nd in the UK and November 8th in the US. This album has great potential to turn our entire top ten list for 2010 on it’s ear in one fell swoop.

From the label’s website above you can download their Long Grass EP as well as The Heritage LP for free. I highly recommend you do so.

Her Name Is Calla – “Pour More Oil”

Her Name Is Calla – “Thief”