PRESS
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Akron/family : Akron/family
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Pennyblackmusic | by Andrew Carveran interesting blend of folk music, weirdness and aural freakishnessThe New York-based band Akron/Family whips up an interesting blend of folk music, weirdness and aural freakishness on its self-titled debut. Opener 'Before and Again' sets the trend with an overall pastoral sound where computerized bleeps collide with an acoustic guitar and what sounds like rain dripping in a pan. Not surprising, when various members of the band are credited with “bric-a-bracâ€, “fruity computer twiddling†and “orchestral computer sentiments†– a.k.a. cellos in a can – in addition to the more traditional guitars, piano and melodica. The band’s strength lies in its genial contemplation of the final drawn-out day of a foreign vacation, the physical sensation of love and the longing caused by its unrequited form in songs like 'Italy'â€, 'I’ll Be on the Water' (water and love are recurring themes in A/F songs) and 'Afford'. Do the band’s songs need the oceanic breaths, creaking telegraphs or violent rushes of digital scree that dot tracks like 'Part of Corey' or 'Suchness'? Probably not, but with its peculiar flourishes the band can at least hope to attract fans of groups like Grandaddy, Flaming Lips and fellow New Yorkers......
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listen online to an interview with Michael Gira and Akron/Family
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David Garland | WNYC-FM 93.9 and wnyc.orgrecorded Friday, April 15th, 9-11pmThis extensive interview, conducted by David Garland, will air on WNYC-FM 93.9 in New York, and live streaming on the web at WNYC - LISTEN HERE ...
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listen online to an interview with Michael Gira and Akron/Family
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David Garland | WNYC-FM 93.9 and wnyc.orgrecorded Friday, April 15th, 9-11pmThis extensive interview, conducted by David Garland, will air on WNYC-FM 93.9 in New York, and live streaming on the web at WNYC - LISTEN HERE ...
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listen online to an interview with Michael Gira and Akron/Family
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David Garland | WNYC-FM 93.9 and wnyc.orgrecorded Friday, April 15th, 9-11pmThis extensive interview, conducted by David Garland, will air on WNYC-FM 93.9 in New York, and live streaming on the web at WNYC - LISTEN HERE ...
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ANGELS OF LIGHT SING 'OTHER PEOPLE"
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Splendid Magazine | by Jennifer Kellya serene, thoughtful lovelinessAlthough not as dramatic as 2003's Everything Is Good Here or as searingly extreme as his work with Swans, Other People has a serene, thoughtful loveliness that builds with every listen. Backed by Akron/Family and recorded almost entirely without percussion, it's wrapped in soft, dreamily acoustic tones that initially obscure the songs' strength. Michael Gira set down a few ground rules before recording these twelve compositions. There would be no long instrumental breaks, very little electrical amplification and no drums. With these boundaries in place -- a constraint on the level of a sonnet's rhyme scheme or an exercise where you write a whole paragraph without using the letter "r" -- he let the songs determine their own shape, both the words and the music describing a specific "other person". So, when opener "Lena's Song" layers euphoric wordless vocal embellishments over its high, lilting guitar lines, it evokes subtle strength and aging beauty. The hammering stop-start melodic runs in "Simon Is Stronger Than Us" draw an entirely different picture, fond and ironic and humorous. "On the Mountain"'s ever-so-slight Americana twanginess underscores Gira's homage to Johnny Cash, while "Dawn"'s hallucinogenic haze echoes the......