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Angels of Light & Akron/Family | Review
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The Wire | By Nick Southgatea lovely lush and pulsing coda December 05 Akron/Family's moonlighting as Michael Gira's Angels of Light took them on a 40-plus date tour playing a set under their own name and another behind Gira every night. Keen to capitalize on ecstatic crowd responses on the road and the energy manifested in the performances, Gira immediately took the whole collaborative operation into the studio a week after the tour landed in Brooklyn. This album was recorded in 9 hardworking and transparently productive days. Five of the songs are Gira's compositions and the rest Akron/Family's own work, hence the split crediting of the album. Gira proclaims that Akron/Family are his favorite "Rock Band". One understands and shares his need to use quotation marks. Whether working as Akron/Family or Angels of Light, they have a sound that recalls acts that have thrived on the collective consciousness of the group as creative bubble and gang mentality. "Awake" has a fingered electric guitar part straight from The Beatles' White Album and multi-part harmonies from Abbey Road. "Future Myth" has the mini-operatic quality of Good Vibrations with a lovely lush and pulsing coda that resolves with a bizzare moment of casio synth......
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Akron/Family and Angels of Light | Review
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The Wire | Nick Southgate a sympathetic and faithful reading of Bob Dylan's "I Pity The Poor Immigrant" December 05 Akron/Family's moonlighting as Michael Gira's Angels of Light took them on a 40-plus date tour playing a set under their own name and another behind Gira every night. Keen to capitalize on ecstatic crowd responses on the road and the energy manifested in the performances, Gira immediately took the whole collaborative operation into the studio a week after the tour landed in Brooklyn. This album was recorded in 9 hardworking and transparently productive days. Five of the songs are Gira's compositions and the rest Akron/Family's own work, hence the split crediting of the album. Gira proclaims that Akron/Family are his favorite "Rock Band". One understands and shares his need to use quotation marks. Whether working as Akron/Family or Angels of Light, they have a sound that recalls acts that have thrived on the collective consciousness of the group as creative bubble and gang mentality. "Awake" has a fingered electric guitar part straight from The Beatles' White Album and multi-part harmonies from Abbey Road. "Future Myth" has the mini-operatic quality of Good Vibrations with a lovely lush and pulsing coda that resolves......
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Akron/Family
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cokemachineglow.com | David Greenwald #10 top 50 albums of the year10. Akron/Family Akron/Family (Young God) x Hear it on our December podcast Sometimes peer pressure is a good thing. I was the last CMGer to listen to Akron/Family, and even with months of advance warning, I was in no way prepared for what I was about to hear. I don't think any of us were, and that¹s what makes Akron/Family so impressive. Unlike Sufjan Stevens' Illinois, which was (fantastic, but also) at least reasonable predictable, Akron/Family comes straight from left-field; along with great songwriting and musicianship, no other album in recent memory contains as many unexpected twists and turns. Akron/Family is like climbing a snowy mountain, all switchbacks and unsteady footing. Around each bend lies an unexplored new path: "Before And Again" mixes electronic beeps with more traditional folk instrumentation before exploding into percussion during the song's final minute, and "Suchness" begins like an old-time blues recording and shifts into Flaming Lips grandeur. Everything changes recording fidelity, instruments, volume but even when Akron/Family plays more straightforwardly, as on "Italy," the song is bolstered by the idiosyncrasy of a rocking chair creaking along with the music. "I'll Be On......
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Akron/Family & Angels of Light split album
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cokemachineglow.com | Christopher Alexander#21 top 50 albums of 2005Top 50 albums of '05 Dec 05 21. Angels of Light & Akron/Family Akron/Family & Angels of Light (Young God) Open letter to every indie rock band everywhere: make more records like Akron/Family's half of this split. Make music that is this jubilant and celebratory, this wide open to the world. Make music that demands the kind of attention this record does, music with the irresistable foot stomps and full-throated howling found here. Break out Led Zeppelin IV if you need to, or Dinosaur Jr, or smoke more weed, or do whatever it is you have to do, but please: rediscover electricity, rediscover your lap, and make music this FUN again. Quite frankly, in the face of all of this, all Michael Gira (as Angels of Light, backed by Akron/Family) has to do is hold the fort. He does, with a Dylan cover thrown in for good measure, and the results are pleasant, but make no mistake: this record is the Akron/Family's show. And WHAT a show: marvel at the mid-eastern guitar stomp of "Sparks!" feast your eyes on the extended work out of "Dylan Part II!" gaze as the late-Beatles period......
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Angels of Light & Akron/Family split album
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cokemachineglow.com | Christopher Alexander #21 top 50 albums of 2005Top 50 albums of '05 Dec 05 21. Angels of Light & Akron/Family Akron/Family & Angels of Light (Young God) Open letter to every indie rock band everywhere: make more records like Akron/Family's half of this split. Make music that is this jubilant and celebratory, this wide open to the world. Make music that demands the kind of attention this record does, music with the irresistable foot stomps and full-throated howling found here. Break out Led Zeppelin IV if you need to, or Dinosaur Jr, or smoke more weed, or do whatever it is you have to do, but please: rediscover electricity, rediscover your lap, and make music this FUN again. Quite frankly, in the face of all of this, all Michael Gira (as Angels of Light, backed by Akron/Family) has to do is hold the fort. He does, with a Dylan cover thrown in for good measure, and the results are pleasant, but make no mistake: this record is the Akron/Family's show. And WHAT a show: marvel at the mid-eastern guitar stomp of "Sparks!" feast your eyes on the extended work out of "Dylan Part II!" gaze as the late-Beatles......