Magnet — An introduction to DC post-rock trio The Sorts
From 1994 to 2003 guitarist Josh LaRue (Rain Like The Sound of Trains, HiM), bassist Stuart Fletcher, drummer Chris Farrall (Hoover) and their circle of collaborators iterated on a unique blend of vintage funk, jazz and dub while keeping one foot firmly planted in the sounds of the indie scene they came from.
The Sorts were hard to pin down while they were active and that hasn’t changed with distance. On any of their five albums they built songs on a rhythmic and formal foundation of funk and old-school R&B but LaRue’s virtuosic jazz guitar, melodic sensibilities and fragile vocals kept them out of the realm of being a party band. They may have been pulling from dancefloor music but they weren’t making music for the dancefloor. That said, when they covered Kool & The Gang on their Contemporary Music LP, it worked.
For myself The Sorts have been a mainstay since seeing an “ex-Hoover” sticker on a Southern Records 45 while on a road trip in 1998. At that time Hoover had already produced two great “ex-members of” bands — Regulator Watts and The Crownhate Ruin — and this being pre-internet age I had no idea what to expect. When I finally got it on a record player I was blown away especially by the b-side “How Did You Get There part 2 (use a magnet)” Everything that I love about this band was present on that record: the repetitive math-y (but not math rock) guitars, the damaged vocals that feel like Elliott Smith, dubby production and the rhythm section of Stuart Fletcher/Chris Farrall that is ultimately why these records are still so listenable today. It’s the kind of thing that seems a bit much on paper but is so singular that it ends up coming across as timeless. Or maybe existing outside of time.
Graphic by the MVA
This mix pulls songs from their whole discography and were sequenced for flow rather than progression. While I admire artists who reinvent themselves on every album I really do have a soft spot for bands who operate as though they have a mission statement and that’s what The Sorts did. They just kept iterating on the ideas I’ve already mentioned.
By 1999’s Contemporary Music LP they had added members (saxophonist Carlo Cennamo of The Boom and HiM and only-the-greatest-drummer-ever Vin Novara on keys) and LaRue stopped singing but it still sounds 100% like a Sorts record. The biggest stylistic evolution for the band would come on their final project Six Plus. The band had lost the horns and keys and brought Joseph McRedmond (ex-Hoover/The Crownhate Ruin guitarist) into the fold. His tone on the record is utterly bizarre, processed almost to the point of sounding like a synth and it creates more interplay with Stuart Fletcher’s basslines. At the same time LaRue’s sound isn’t as pure as it had been on previous records. It stretches the Sorts sound without tearing up the mission statement.
Honestly there’s so much to be said about this band that I give up so allow me to present you with Magnet — The Best of The Sorts (or at least a comprehensive introduction). I hope it gives you at least an inkling of what I have gotten from this band over the last 20-something years.