Monday, March 3, 2025

Good Night & Good Morning - Narrowing Type


Good Night & Good Morning - Narrowing Type


2023 LP (Energy Crow Records)


Good Night & Good Morning are an ambient slowcore band that formed in 2007 in Champaign, IL. They were much more active in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but they have recently been playing occasional shows in and around the midwest. They released many EPs during their tenure, including a collaborative release with midwest sludge metal band Rvins. Many of these EPs were digital-only, and are not the most known due to their hard-to-find nature. In 2012, they released their landmark and only album, Narrowing Type, on the Luxembourg-based label Own Records. In 2023, the album was reissued by the amazing Energy Crow Records, which is owned and operated by my friend Jen. My copy is a test pressing of this reissue, which is limited to 10 copies with a new cover. 

Note: This is very likely the best sounding record in my collection. The label and band went to lengths to make sure this sounded as good as it possibly could, even including rejecting the first round of test pressings. Although the first pressing has sold out, it was recently repressed on a nice pink vinyl. If you’re a fan of the band, I recommend picking it up. At $20, it is unbelievably worth it for the quality of the product you get. I don’t mean to shill or sound like a broken record, but it truly is amazing. A+, through and through. Check it out here. Now, on to the music..


To put it simply, this is one of my favorite albums of all time. Although not technically "emo", I hold the belief that this record is emo purely based on that intangible essence that you can sense on some bands if you get deep enough into the genre, whether or not it falls into the genre musically or not. It oozes such a subtle beauty that is only revealed on deep, meditative listens. Narrowing Type is a perfect combination of slowcore, drone, ambient, and shoegaze that is fitted with incredibly sleek, clean production. The closest comparison I can draw is to Grouper; many of the sounds on this album are reminiscent of those on Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill and A I A: Alien Observer. The second it comes on, the beautiful sounds fill your ears and empty out your head, filling it with dreams. The arrangements are drawn-out and gorgeous; the soft, delicate vocals on this record are some of the most soothing I’ve ever heard. The guitars are completely awash in tremolo and reverb, making some amazing tones that at times rival the more melodic bits of Loveless. Across the record, the drums are very sparse, only coming in when they truly need to. It’s reminiscent of the first few Low records- using silence as a tool to make the music that is present more impactful. When this record builds, it builds. The second track, Philadelphia, begins slow and peaceful, eventually cascading into a cacophony of dreamy guitars. Near the end of the song, an ethereal wall of sound is built with the use of a violin; an instrument not often used in music like this, but it is extremely impactful and well-placed.


Another thing I love about this record is how truly seamless it feels. There are no abrupt transitions between songs (well, other than having to flip the record), and every song perfectly leads into the next, to the point where it is barely noticeable when one song ends and another begins. Every sound on this record is placed in such a way that it makes me think that there is genuinely no way that it could be made better. The B-side of this record is where it truly shines, though. This is the more ambient side of Good Night & Good Morning: they show their chops by creating some of the most blissed out ambient soundscapes that have ever been put to tape. Median I / Median II is a perfect mix of both sounds, with the former being completely instrumental, eventually evolving into a noisy mix of effects and leading perfectly back into their slowcore sound on the latter. In my opinion, the track that most shows the band's genius is the final, Abroad & Neutral. This is one of my favorite ambient songs of all time; it combines the bits and pieces of ambient shown earlier in the record along with some nature recordings and more post-rock and drone influence into a massive, nearly ten minute long piece that infiltrates your psyche and puts you in a truly trance-like state. Narrowing Type stands up to both my favorite ambient albums and my favorite slowcore albums; it is a masterclass of genre-bending beauty that never ceases to amaze me.

I'm going to add some downloads at the end of this post here, Sophie's Floorboard style, along with a video of them playing with Ethel Cain at a recent show. This is basically their full discography- some of these are comically difficult to find. Please enjoy.

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