For fans of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Weirs, Yoo Doo Right, drone metal, and the first rays of sunlight after a devastating storm, Rainsmoked Christmas by Food People invokes intense tragedy through subtle abstractions of the folk form. Where classic post rock bands may have used these sorts of fragile, wavering drone sounds as a means to reach a higher climax, Food People treat these elements as ends in themselves, forcing us to linger on that moment just before euphoric resolution. Ignoring both the depths from which we’ve come and the future into which we emerge drenches this record in an uncomfortable liminality, always in a constant motion of slowing down into the finish line without actually reaching a sustainable point. We’d like to think that some sort of paradise awaits us on the other side, but we have just as much reason to believe that this ambiguity may mark the furthest we will go, a false promise of resolution before we’re sucked back into negativity, from which we’ll beg for the awkwardness amid a sea of despair.
