Canopy

The music of Glasgow, Scotland's Ganger was criminally under-heard across the Atlantic in the band's brief lifetime. Indeed, Canopy, an EP pressed for the band's maiden U.S. tour with Mogwai in the fall of 1999, wound up as its final release. Ganger's brilliant blend of rhythm, texture, and bass-driven warmth had just begun to hit its stride on 1998's magnificent Hammock Style, and this EP shows a clear pattern of growth from that release. In particular, the vocals that graced nearly half of the tracks on Hammock Style have been cast aside, allowing the music to tug on the heartstrings in way most instrumentals never do. "State Conversation" initially recalls the crystalline beauty of the instrumentals on Bundy K. Brown's Directions in Music album, before an abrupt rhythm change generates a spell of head-nodding bliss. Elsewhere, Ganger demonstrates the art of restraint on the title track and "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants," which kicks around in the same major key for over six minutes. A darker vibe emerges on the Sonic Youth-ish "Now We Have You," while the 42-second "Hai!" revels in a jubilant, major-key riff. One will never know how great this band could have become.