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Akron/Family & Angels of Light | Review
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www.stylusmagazine.com | Josh HonnGira and Akron/Family converge as Angels of Light to create hybrid AmericanaDecember 20, 05 Akron/Family & Angels of Light Young God 2005 A Anyone fortunate enough to have soaked in the debut self-titled album by the rural America turned NYC-based outfit Akron/Family was treated to one of the more inventive and gently experimental folk-based records of 2005. Of course, one doesn't want to get bogged down in further genre debates over "freak folk" or whatever one deems necessary to call such sounds the four members of Akron/Family produce so Michael Gira, founder and owner of Young God Records (and, yes, the same Michael Gira of Swans fame) simply calls Akron/Family a "rock" band. Hell, even he puts rock in quotations. I guess it is hard to be a genre these days. Gira toured extensively as Angels of Light with Akron/Family as his backing band and opening act. After the tour both Gira and his latest Young God "find" (Devendra Banhart, who?) headed into the studio to record what is essentially a live split-CD titled Angels of Light & Akron/Family. The fact that this is a mildly overdubbed record is remarkable and a monster sized nod to how......
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Akron/Family & Angels of Light | Review
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www.stylusmagazine.com | Josh Honna complete album of epic scale, musical significance and a highly prescient lesson in listeningDecember 20, 05 Akron/Family & Angels of Light Young God 2005 A Anyone fortunate enough to have soaked in the debut self-titled album by the rural America turned NYC-based outfit Akron/Family was treated to one of the more inventive and gently experimental folk-based records of 2005. Of course, one doesn't want to get bogged down in further genre debates over "freak folk" or whatever one deems necessary to call such sounds the four members of Akron/Family produce so Michael Gira, founder and owner of Young God Records (and, yes, the same Michael Gira of Swans fame) simply calls Akron/Family a "rock" band. Hell, even he puts rock in quotations. I guess it is hard to be a genre these days. Gira toured extensively as Angels of Light with Akron/Family as his backing band and opening act. After the tour both Gira and his latest Young God "find" (Devendra Banhart, who?) headed into the studio to record what is essentially a live split-CD titled Angels of Light & Akron/Family. The fact that this is a mildly overdubbed record is remarkable and a monster sized......
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Akron/Family
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www.othermusic.comBEST ALBUMS 2005 DEC '05 ***2005'S BEST ROCK ALBUMS*** AKRON/FAMILY "Akron/Family" (Young God) CD These Brooklyn hippies explored elements of folk and psychedelia on their Young God debut, but they stood apart (and above) many of their bearded peers with a sense of openness and fun that incorporated a myriad of other, less obvious influences: Radiohead, Captain Beefheart, the Incredible String Band, Spiritualized, the Flaming Lips, to name a few, and they found a warped individuality that seamlessly tied it all together. ...
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Mi and L'au | Review
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The Illinois Times | Rene' Spencer Sallerthe aural equivalent of the aurora borealisDECEMBER 15, 2005 A blissful sound Mi and L'au invite you to join their lovefest (Young God Records) You don't know Mi and L'au, but you know a couple like them: beautiful, blissfully in love, and, well, sometimes a bit of a drag. They're so into each other, so deeply connected and complete in themselves, that being around them feels vaguely creepy, as if you're interrupting their foreplay. Although it makes you feel like a jerk to begrudge them their perfect-couple contentment, begrudge them you must: Don't they get sick of staring at each other's flawless faces? Mi and L'au are a Finnish ex-model and a French composer/multiinstrumentalist, respectively, who fell in love in Paris (but of course, such people never hook up in Des Moines). When not discovering new and fascinating things about each other, they found the time to befriend freak-folk avatar Devendra Banhart, who dedicated Oh Me Oh My's "A Gentle Soul" to them. Then the pair retreated to a cabin in rural Finland, where, between sessions of what was no doubt mutually satisfying and respectful lovemaking, they wrote these 14 spare, gentle, steadfastly pretty songs. Although......
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Mi and L'au | Review
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The Wire | Nick Southgatea pageant of slow motion carousel swirls December 2005 If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it fall, does it make a sound? One is put in mind of this conundrum by the bare and stark songs of Mi and L'au. The pair live in total isolation in a forest in Finland, having retreated there from Paris, where they met and fell in love. These songs were crafted with only themselves as a possible and intended audience. This is the soft, sweet voice of hermetically bonded love's self sufficiency and solipsism. Michael Gira transported them to Brooklyn to record this album, but his production still captures the fragility of their arboreal retreat despite being executed in a concrete jungle. Although Mi and L'au have found sanctuary in each other, many of the songs express doubts and confusions about the world they have left behind. On "How", Mi sings about "When I feel empty", while the delicate echo of a high piano note punctuates a slow, painful march of doubt and introspection. L'au leads "Merry Go Round", a limping song of regrets lost in the bottom of a glass. "Here's a bottle of wine,"......