PRESS
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Akron/Family
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Rocksound, Issue 72, May 25 ’05 (UK) | by Mike DiverRating: 8Rural types that ditched the country for the bustle of New York City back in 02, Akron/Family aren’t any old musicians looking to impress upon a scene; they’re not conventionally cool or hip, aping retro acts to seek commercial success. They’re simply men, born with hearts and souls, and all they do is write songs – sometimes sparse, sometimes complex – that possess charm and character enough to render that opening sentence irrelevant: this music doesn’t need location to serve as a point of stylistic reference. It’s absolutely conceivable that this, their first proper studio release after several self-issued recordings, will attract comparisons to today’s self-styled ‘free-folk’ artists. However, it should be noted that whilst Devendra Banhart et al are now successful, money-spinning assets, it’s acts like Akron/Family who craft the songs that cut closest to the bone....
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Angles of Light sing “Other Peopleâ€
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Rock Sound, Issue 72, May 2005 | by Amy McGillRating: 6WHO? Michael Gira, an acoustic songwriter with a bunch of merry folk musicians. SOUNDS LIKE? Nick Cave fronting The Polyphonic Spree in the middle of a desert. STANDOUT TRACK? ‘On The Mountain’ for its Velvet Underground drone. VERDICT? A twisted, in-your-face alt-country album that requires a lot of chewig over....
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Angels of Light sing “Other Peopleâ€
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UNCUT, Take 96, May 2005 | by Rob YoungCharacter studies and convulsive beauty in Michael Gira’s portrait albumMichael Gira says a song is “just something that passes through meâ€. In Swans it passed like a bowel motion, but in Angels of Light, he allows himself greater reflective space. Gira keeps things drumless, employing members of Akron/Family in a rich, acoustic chamber odyssey, sketching a procession of characters at once familiar (Michael Jackson, Saddam and Bush) and mythic. The pace and register of the record seldom alter: the soundscape is always more baked earth than lush foliage....
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Angles of Light sing “Other Peopleâ€
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Rock Sound, Issue 72, May 2005 | by Amy McGillRating: 6WHO? Michael Gira, an acoustic songwriter with a bunch of merry folk musicians. SOUNDS LIKE? Nick Cave fronting The Polyphonic Spree in the middle of a desert. STANDOUT TRACK? ‘On The Mountain’ for its Velvet Underground drone. VERDICT? A twisted, in-your-face alt-country album that requires a lot of chewig over....
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Akron/Family
()
Rocksound, Issue 72, May 25 ’05 (UK) | by Mike DiverRating: 8Rural types that ditched the country for the bustle of New York City back in 02, Akron/Family aren’t any old musicians looking to impress upon a scene; they’re not conventionally cool or hip, aping retro acts to seek commercial success. They’re simply men, born with hearts and souls, and all they do is write songs – sometimes sparse, sometimes complex – that possess charm and character enough to render that opening sentence irrelevant: this music doesn’t need location to serve as a point of stylistic reference. It’s absolutely conceivable that this, their first proper studio release after several self-issued recordings, will attract comparisons to today’s self-styled ‘free-folk’ artists. However, it should be noted that whilst Devendra Banhart et al are now successful, money-spinning assets, it’s acts like Akron/Family who craft the songs that cut closest to the bone....