With instrumental groups, you'd always like to put words in their mouths, even when you want them to remain instrumental because it wouldn't be the same if they weren't. You suffer some twinge of neediness, that of the completionist who needs to know what comes of the people in the story, what becomes of those they're leaving behind, or wondering if there were people in the story at all. Could these wily instrumentalists simply be picturing and conjuring a landscape that's bare of any of those trappings, any of those blemishes and abominations? Could these folks care less about the ways that words can affect, or muddy?
David Klein and Nick Woolley, of the Portland, Oregon, duo Good Night Billygoat, insert very few vocals into their songs - most of which they label as movements - and we never feel like we're getting short-changed. They are the scenes that are left behind, the backdrops to what occurred, and yet they feel as vocal as anything else could. You can sense that these movements could talk your ears off, if they wanted to, if they were given half a chance. They have droopy eyes and cheeks. They sound as if they've been happier. These are the days that they're stuck with though having already been acted upon, used and written off as the past tense.