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Akron/Family & Angels of Light | Review

Skyscraper Magazine | Michael Meade

perfectly informed, a cohesive psychedelic tour-de-force

ANGELS OF LIGHT & AKRON/FAMILY
Akron/Family & Angels of Light CD ­

Earlier this year in the pages of this very magazine I gushed about the frenzied beauty of Akron/Family's debut recording. Following a tour with mentor Michael Gira's Angels of Light, the two bands quickly laid down the tracks for this split (Akron/Family providing back-up to Gira's songs). The Akron/Family cuts come first, and are not much departure from work on their debut. Inspired, conspired chaos punctuates folky acoustics amid closely-harmonized vocal antics on their seven tracks. "Moment" and "Dylan Pt. 2" are both mesmerizing and a study in the diverging natures of this band. I have been increasingly fond of the directions taken by The Angels of Light lately, and here they lay down five cuts, one of which is a quite nice take on Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant," Gira's reading spot-on. Gira also covers himself with Swans' "Mother/Father" (from The Great Annihilator), transforming a drum'n'bass Jarboe drone into a tribal chant,with able assistance from the Akron/Family boys. With fewer tracks, Angels of Light still deliver the best song here. "The Provider" is seven magnetic minutes of playful, if seemingly irreconcilable ideas perfectly informed, a cohesive psychedelic tour-de-force that features the best approaches of both bands. This split effectively demonstrates not only that the lessons of Gira's guidance have been incorporated by Akron/Family, but that they have exerted no small amount of influence on his own art. This would have been less obvious had Young God opted for separate EP's.
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