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Akron/Family & Angels of Light | Review
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www.thebollard.com | David Pence Jr the group embodies a spirit of virtuosity and ambition that underpins the cascades of soundPortland, Maine Tues., March 28 This split CD on Michael Gira's Young Gods label features seven tracks by Brooklyn's Akron/Family (www.akronfamily.com). I'm new to this band, and it's been interesting to listen to them in juxtaposition with the work of French Toast. Akron/Family brings together an abundance of ideas and enthusiasm, and the music has real sweep. They are interested in complexity and density, not spareness. Songs feel like compositions, with sections stitched together in surprising and sometimes sneaky ways. As opposed to the cave, this is music of the meadow, of open windows, of the gale lashing the ledge. You may be reminded of any number of bands from the '60s and '70s (a few lush vocal passages evoked for me the artful, pastoral splendor of the Pretty Things), as well as a few modern outfits with a similar fondness for the rear-view mirror. Akron/Family delights in having digested a feast of rock, and they put this knowledge to use with assurance. The band often starts from a simple or gentle place that serves as a platform for the shifts in tone, tempo,......
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Akron/Family | Review
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See Magazine | Christa O'KeefeAkron/Family's music is simultaneously a point and a wave Edmonton, CanadaMar 7/06Sound of lightIt's mystifying how four regular dudes from small communities in the Eastern U.S. have managed to effectively blend the sprawling, ambitious country-prog rock of the early '70s with large-scale jubilant pop and the looped, evocative ideas of ambient music. Listening to Akron/Family doesn't immediately conjure up visions of their present day home in New York City, and not only because they totally lack the self-congratulatory archness and infestation of jaded referencing that tends to riddle the work of most of the young lions hailing from that creative Mecca.The foursome offers up bucolic-edged, ebullient songs that celebrate emotion generated through wallowing in the senses. Lyrics are stuffed with the kind of imagery that formed the spine of psychedelia during it's hopeful, let's-change-the-world heyday (before it became a shuffling, soulless cliché). Instrumentation that could have been thieved from an Alabama high school banjo, tambourine, glockenspiel, flutes, harmonica,etc. thrives alongside the usual rock culprits, with the occasional piece of rhythmically squeaking furniture thrown in on top of group hollers and whistling. Songs alternately creak and skitter, then billow out to groan under an aural weight that would......
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Akron/Family & Angels of Light | Review
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The Weekly Buzz | Dan Mcdonald This is a record of finding a middle ground of mixing old sounds with new sensibilities. Champagne/Urbana Illinois3/9/2006Apparently, Akron/Family and Angels of Light have heard Abbey Road, Blonde on Blonde, and probably some Creedence Clearwater Revival, Modest Mouse, and Animal Collective. However, unlike Akron/Family and Angels of Light's contemporaries, few bands channel the spirit of rock 'n' roll in such a refreshingly melodramatic fashion.Akron/Family and Angels of Light released Akron/Family & Angels of Light, a pseudo-split between the two bands released by Young God Records. The first seven tracks are Akron/Family's material and the final five belong to Angels of Light, under which name former Swans front man Michael Gira plays. Gira owns Young God Records and uses Akron/Family as his band for this album. The fun of Light is that the two distinct styles distinguish themselves from the man (or men) singing in front to the drums in back as the record digresses in this folksy concoction.Akron/Family has a "freak folk" sound, as my friend called it, which blends '60s rock with older country and folk sensibilities. They borrow much of the opening of Light from the Beatles' "Because." Bits of "Sun King"......
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Akron/Family | Interview
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Alternative Ulster | Kiran Acharya ZZ Top have great beards, I will admit, but they lost their cred. 2006 They've recorded the sounds of chairs squeaking and pounded the breath from their chests for percussion to create structured, sprawling songs, as much at home in the clubs as by the campfire. Three records’ worth of DIY home-recorded the acclaimed split EP with Angles Of Light and their eponymous debut album. Theirs is a world of aural weirdness, tripped-out fold and found sounds mixing with alt-rock psychedelia in compelling, chanting, kaleidoscopic glory. Most-of-the-time singer Ryan gives us the lowdown. What is Akron/Family's musical heritage? We all share an interest in all different kinds of music and that comes into play. We try and dig up all the different kinds. Pop music has definitely been a big influence as with most people of our generation; Zeppelin, Hendrix and of course The Beatles. We don't really relate to the newer stuff as, well, it's mostly shit. Is there a story behind the name? It's a combination of different things ‘Akron’ in Greek means ‘the edge’, so sometimes we like to think our music’s like the edge, living on the edge; but not like the guy from......
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Akron/Family | Interview
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Navigator Newspaper/Canada | Jakob Rehlingerour goal was never to achieve a perfect vocal blend according to some strict notion of harmonyFeb '06FAMILY GUYS: Akron/Family When speaking of the current Nanaimo entertainment scene, it's fair to say there's a lot to complain about. Outside of a few mid-level Canadian radio-rock acts trying to hang on to the waning momentum of their one mid-'90s hit, we don't get a lot of touring acts anymore. Sure, one ABBA tribute or another swings through The Port every year and there's always some 70's dinosaur with a questionable number of original members popping around, but rarely does a young band with an international buzz and upward career trajectory show its face. It seems Nanaimo isn't worth a lot of bands' time and, frankly, there are a lot of reasons not to play Nanaimo. The cost of the ferry is one good reason and the fact there are hardly any venues (much less band-friendly ones) to even play at is certainly another. Luckily for us, Brooklyn NY's folky psych-rock revivalists Akron/Family are undaunted by these factors and will be headlining Ramshackle 2006 at The Cambie on March 2.Akron/Family's meteoric rise began 18 months ago when Michael Gira (former......