The Secret Club

The best way to keep an organization clandestine is to conceal it from public view. Some of the music on this career-spanning collection dates back to 1996, but the band from Mission was a studio-only project until 2003. That’s when studio-whiz founder Jason Hall and fellow sonic engineer Chris Wagner dropped their other projects and started focusing on completing their long-incubating debut (and playing the Club’s first-ever shows).

Hall and Wagner’s recording-room mastery pays dividends on this decade-in-the-making disc. The liner notes reveal that “this CD was mastered for sonic quality, not volume,” but the melodic guitar leads pierce with uncommon clarity, and the drum rolls register as seismic activity. “I Sing the Body Electric,” the sonic showcase, alternates between assertive riffs and downward-slanting aftershocks, then climaxes with an astounding late-song volume spike.

Sunday Suite opens with a much softer song, from a circa-2002 sextet formation with Jason Beers on organ and Jen Deardorf contributing ethereal vocals. Colossal drums, shadowy three-part harmonies, languid bass lines and soaring choruses distinguish the record’s dominant lineup (Hall, Wagner and Jeff Limer, also 2002). Most recently (2004-05), the Secret Club has become a quartet, with Chris Sweetland assuming drum duties and Hall moving to full-time guitar. Choppier and faster, these tracks crackle rather than smolder. Non-chronological sequencing makes this an entertainingly random time-machine trip.