Karate: The bed is in the ocean

Throughout their seven-year career, Boston based post-rockers Karate shifted gradually from a controlled, minimal punkrock sound to a more instrumentally focused style with an increasingly prominent place for Geoff Farina's jazzy guitar playing. Arguably, they were at their very best just in between. While their debut "Karate" (1995) suffered somewhat from the fact that Farina's beautifully quiet-yet-loud vocal style wasn't completely developed yet (he cracked a few false notes here and there), their latest effort "Unsolved" (2001) was a bit too crammed with jazzy guitar leads to live up to their early minimalist appeal.

Of the two records released in between, "In place of real insight" (1997) and "The bed is in the ocean"(1999), the latter struck a perfect balance between the bare-essence ethics of punkrock and the soothing, beautiful sound of an intimate jazz combo. It was jazzrock without the egos. It was punk with brains and a heart and it was half an hour of beautiful, captivating songs without a single boring moment. What is most impressive about this record is the remarkably intense way in which it sheds new light on musically well documented emotions like anger, loss and everyday struggle. In a refreshingly sincere and understated way Farina, Goddard and McCarthy completely circumvent all cliches and pitfalls that come with the territory.

All recordings were made in Farina's living room, giving it a very relaxed and intimate feel. The record has a very sparse but carefully constructed sound with equal parts of rock, punk and jazz, but far more minimal than each of those. The recording is a mere registration: there are no effects, no productional tricks, just a warm, clear guitar sound with a mild tube overdrive, a punchy bass guitar with a round tone and a small, well recorded and well played drum kit.

Lineup

Tracks

Southern Records (1997)

E2 guide to music you've never heard of	Moons is good for eatin	Everything Quests: Albums and CDs	karate
jazz	Dream log: May 27, 2007	Our Point of Departure	Dream log: November 10, 2014
been there, done that	River of Dreams	April 28, 2006	Blonde Redhead
postrock	Slint	math rock	If I Bring It to the River
you've got your mothers cheekbones and your father's crooked smile	father, from afar	The boy who couldn't look at himself	I wanted nothing more than for the ocean to be calm and still
United States Military Bugle Calls	Mice will continue to dream of Cats shedding claws from radiation sickness	December 25, 2003	Values Here

The bed is in the ocean (thing)

Karate: The bed is in the ocean