Growing

Currently the work of two members, Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria, Growing began in 2001 as a three-piece, with Denardo, Doria and Zack Carlson (all playing guitar) prayerfully creating elongated instrumental pieces at dog-exploding volumes. Live shows were unbelievably loud, and the band was difficult to categorize since metal, noise and even indie rock could all lay claim to aspects of the ultra-minimal music. Carlson left the band after the release of their first album, The Sky's Run Into the Sea, and Denardo and Doria have begun to employ keyboards and bass. The music remains extremely deliberate, but the keyboards add an element of new-age instrumentalism to the previous no-tempo howl of e-bow-molded feedback and super-low bass-note rumblings. The name of the band is startlingly apropos: the music often really does sound like plant life emerging from the ground. To some, Growing makes beautiful, almost transcendent music. Many others, however, just don't get it.