Hands, they reach up to touch, open, grasp, high-five, poke, point, play, and only reach down to tie our shoelaces. That’s where Inlimbo’s new album Old Pottery, Able Hands (OPAH) lays, as that bow-tied double-knot in your gaudy old sneakers. You know, the ones with the street-worn sole and laces that are starting to un-stuff themselves from the shiny plastic tipped encasing, from the inside out. You tighten the knot with your finger-ends, cause you know it’s functional, you know it works, but the fabric is going to break soon, so its off to purchase a new pair as you toss those ancient shoes beside the garden where they sit beside the soil holding years of sweat, your first love, and other nostalgia, with duct-tape on the outsole and on the toe-cap.
Although this is Inlimbo’s first full length album, these songs have been in the garden for a while, being tended to by its four members, garden-hoes and water-pales in each hand, braving the fluctuating Canadian climate from the summer’s blazing heat, the fall’s cutting winds, the winter’s frigid cold and the spring’s attack of pollen (we’re all allergic). This team of musical pilgrims have made a mosaic of different songs, each sounding unique in its own way, but with each, an echoing of understanding that they were pulled out of the same ground.
And maybe that’s why OPAH is so diverse. Sure, there is melody, there’s pop structure (whatever that is), but the soil isn’t tight, it’s organic, it’s all ready to fall apart at any second with crashing symbols, seething guitar chords, and slinky bass lines. It’s held stable only by the ubiquitous cooing and cawing of its two lead singers. OPAH was harvested (to keep the allegory going) by recording engineer Josh Korody, who’s wonderful sonic raking has helped Inlimbo mirror the energy and charisma of their live performance.
Inlimbo says a lot of things on this album, all pointing towards self-illusion, other people’s perception of self-illusion, how others perceive your perception and so forth until it becomes a massive carousel that we’re all comfortably strapped to. The album is about being able to communicate while we are all spinning with each other. It’s never easy. We can all wave hello, but the only way to know if we did is if there is a wave back. Round and round we go.

- Giulio G. Rocco