About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2011)
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But liberation from the discipline of song structure is more often a blessing for the artist, not the listener. Though not as guilty as jam bands, experimental ambient music has been the umbrella for a lot of pointless indulgence. Fortunately. Reincarnalions»» isn’t a collection of go-nowhere sonic wanderings. Sure, their chill cerebral streams fade into each other more like an impres sionistic collage of memories rather than tidy melodies. But there's enough craft in the vignettes of song that show whenever the sonic lens focuses to suggest some capability and curiosity at work here. Nearly 13 minutes long, ‘Life’ is more like two songs in one—going from outward, sun-kissed tides to an introverted orbital groove. After open ing like a dawn, ’Afterlife’ breaks down into a subterranean rap interlude and ends up in outer space. ‘Death’ is largely unremarkable, but the hypnotic rhythm of ‘AfterDeath’ weathers a muted storm of puising sounds until it emerges on the other side as a warped and sedated No Age-esque melody afloat in Wonderland. Bao Le-Huu Future Ape Tapes are playing at Go Baron Tuesday, May 10. PANDA BEAR Tom Boy Paw Tracks Noah Lennox's latest album as Panda Bear eschews the sprawling, meandering format of 20071s Person Pitch. The songs hew closer to a verse/ chorus structure, with only one track over five minutes. Lennox establishes the beat within the first half-minute or so, and then hels off. And yet it's astounding how unhur ried the record sounds. This relaxed feel might owe something to Tom Bo/s relative simplicity when compared with Person Pitch. The latter featured songs that developed so slowly their growth became part of their character; the pro cess behind the song vied for attention with the song itself. The new record's production, neither busy nor sparse, tends to recede into the background as the song's basic elements emerge. At moments, it can seem that Lennox's harmonies are all you hear. This is in fact the case with the first track, “You Can Count on Me.’ The songs a cap- pella opening is reminiscent of Fleet Foxes' debut, a remarkable correlation given the basic acoustic/electronic divide between the two artists. Like Bradford Cox on his recent Bedroom Databank releases, Lennox seems to be reaching back to the influences in which his music is rooted—even as he grows more influential himself. Marshall Yarbrough I WAS TOTALLY DESTROYING IT Preludes Greyday This 10-track collection of songs is largely written by guitarist/vocal ist Josh Booker. Although conceived initially as a precursor to a new LP, Preludes became a proper album itself after undergoing full-band arrange ments. It’s a tight and concise state ment concerning the band's dedication to trieo-and-true indie-rock styling. That's not necessarily the slight it might seem at first, and there's really something to be said about not trend hopping Even so. IWTDI is totally mar ried to early-*90s college rock. There are certain moments in the album that give pause, such as the quite nice, mid-tempo number “When Chaos Comes.’ And the albumls undoubted highlight is “Twenty- Thousand,' a bitter rocker about an irritating time-waster of a person whom the protagonist is constantly avoiding. The song plays by one of rock's basic rules, too: a joyful tune with a half cathartic lyric. But two songs aren't enough to pay more than fleeting attention to Preludes. There's so much on here that piques the listeners interest just enough (the keyboards and vocals in ’Control,’ the contemplative ’Fight/ Flight’), but I'd be lying if I said I was totally destroyed by any of it. Gordon Lamb THE HUCE BROTHERS Celebration, Florida Fat Possum The array of sounds that The Felice Brothers pack into their newest release makes for a compellingly schizophrenic 47-plus minutes Moments of respite are allowed to intersperse the first couple of tracks and grow more pres ent near the end, frequently evoking the balladry of Dylan circa Modern Times. Elsewhere, familiar sounds and techniques of some of the best pop-experimental ists are thrown into the mix of dense yet catchy numbers, detailing the lives of real and fictional characters A list of stylistic references could be easily drawn up, but The Felice Brothers distinguish themselves from their forebears more frequently than they recall them. The Brothers drink from a trough of influences similar to Wilco. but their songs are only similar in that they share tuneful, literate vocals. The Brothers use electronic music as a source of inertia that drops in and out of the mix unexpectedly, building to a rousing, horn-spangled chorus or suddenly disappearing, leav ing the listener in a simmering folkie dirge. Brian Veysey SCREENS Dead House What Delicate Springing from the ranks of interesting outfits like dope D C. band The Apes, Dischord Records act Medications and San Francisco's The Mall, Screens is proudly in line with the leading experimental bands seriously looking to rewrite the rules of rock and pop music. Fusing bright psychedelic splashes, dark primeval currents and the sinister organs reminiscent of both The Apes and The Mall, the future primitivism of this full- length debut is a dense and dizzying merge of styles blended in a way that defies obvious historical reference. The album's most riveting moments come via the tribal exuberance of “Saturdays,’ the macabre clatter of ‘Pop Logic,’ the disorienting onslaught of “Man Down,’ the rising storm of “Fall Girl’ and the sky-shooting Parts & Labor-esque rush of ‘35’ and ‘Cataplexy.’ Mining similarly dystopian ground as Liars and Black Feelings, its sound is dire but unquestionably vivid and unsettled, like a fever dream. But unlike other more difficult contemporaries who dare tread this arcane frontier. Screens miraculously maintains melodic intelligibility even while dan gling on the visceral precipice. Bao Le-Huu CHRISSAKES/ THE CONVOCATION Split 12” Trans Ruin/ One Percent Press ThereS almost a throwback vibe to Chrissakes' half of tnis split 12’ with Baltimore's The Convocation. The teeling hits you at the breakdown of “Granby,’ the first time you hear the bluesy swung rhythms the band favors. On the surface, the band can seem jagged, but guitarist Drew Smith's solos have an organic feel, a pentatonic warmth Rob Thomason's drum parts are elaborate, but any mathiness is erased by his loose playing; it's almost Keith Moon-like. In fact, were it not for Smith's vocals, you might think Chrissakes had skipped the legacy of '80s and UOs hardcore entirely. Oddly, what keeps the band together is what makes it so hard to pin down. Helen Rheinhart’s parts are at times nimble and melodic, and at others they consist of massive single notes that bend the direction of the others’ playing as if around a gravitational center. The Convocation's half is con siderably more epic, relying on the interplay between vocal and guitar melodies. It can be a bit overblown, as with the extended soloing on the last instrumental track. There are moments, however, when the band ditches extra weight and achieves a menacing sim plicity akin to early PJ Harvey. Marshall Yarbrough FOLKLORE Home Church Road Single Girl Married Girl Folklore’s debut album, The Ghosl of H.W. Beaverman, had an elusive charm The songs were like whispered conversations, half overheard. Each melody was haunting but obscured, as if covered in dust. This never went well in concert; onstage, you can't whisper. But the band's third album, Home Church Road, has all the exuberance its old shows lacked. Like the first two records, it is built around a concept, something like world apocalypse as small-town tall tale. Beaverman was a reserved record that rewarded close listening; Home Church Road shows off its strengths. *A Few Years Later’ makes use of punchy guitar distortion, its chorus benefiting from quirky but full-bodied horns; ’The Party’ has the same sub stantial quality. Jimmy Hughes' song writing shines with added confidence He is comfortable in the role of racon teur. His use of the concept album form owes a debt to Ray Davies, but Hughes doesn't share Davies' cynicism. He has more in common with John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. Though Darnielle^ work is more personal, its allure lies in being simultaneously intimate and forthcoming—a quality Folklore has done well to achieve. Marshall Yarbrough 14 FLAGPOLE.COM-MAY 11,2011
