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Angels of Light Sing Other People | Review
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pitchforkmedia.com | Sam UblGira's music is now, shockingly, almost docile I first knew I liked Angels of Light's Sing "Other People" when my Busch Light-swigging, Kenny Chesney-worshipping ex-roommate-- who hadn't once, in six months, said a word about any of the music I played constantly during our time together-- mistook the singer for Johnny Cash. If you were lead Angel Michael Gira, what would you be more flattered by: Passing for the "man in black", or conveying to someone who had remained so militantly mum about, quite literally, a thousand other bands? Whereas it once might have seemed ludicrous, the comparison is no longer that far off: Nearly 20 years removed from his work with seminal sadist folk-rockers Swans, Gira sounds sobered (if not necessarily sober) and peacefully wearied. Without the drone-soaked meditations and wild-eyed dynamic spirograms, Gira's music is now, shockingly, almost docile. For that alone, Sing "Other People" is a gutsy record. It maintains the band's lo-fi intimacy while expanding its breadth to include back-up singing and more voluminous instrumentation. Fans of Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home, the Angels' tumultuous 2003 stab at lysergic folk, shouldn't be faulted for thinking they're hearing a different band altogether. Part......
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Angels of Light Sing Other People | Review
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pitchforkmedia.com | Sam UblGira's music is now, shockingly, almost docile I first knew I liked Angels of Light's Sing "Other People" when my Busch Light-swigging, Kenny Chesney-worshipping ex-roommate-- who hadn't once, in six months, said a word about any of the music I played constantly during our time together-- mistook the singer for Johnny Cash. If you were lead Angel Michael Gira, what would you be more flattered by: Passing for the "man in black", or conveying to someone who had remained so militantly mum about, quite literally, a thousand other bands? Whereas it once might have seemed ludicrous, the comparison is no longer that far off: Nearly 20 years removed from his work with seminal sadist folk-rockers Swans, Gira sounds sobered (if not necessarily sober) and peacefully wearied. Without the drone-soaked meditations and wild-eyed dynamic spirograms, Gira's music is now, shockingly, almost docile. For that alone, Sing "Other People" is a gutsy record. It maintains the band's lo-fi intimacy while expanding its breadth to include back-up singing and more voluminous instrumentation. Fans of Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home, the Angels' tumultuous 2003 stab at lysergic folk, shouldn't be faulted for thinking they're hearing a different band altogether. Part......
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Angels of Light Sing Other People | Review
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pitchforkmedia.com | Sam UblGira's music is now, shockingly, almost docile I first knew I liked Angels of Light's Sing "Other People" when my Busch Light-swigging, Kenny Chesney-worshipping ex-roommate-- who hadn't once, in six months, said a word about any of the music I played constantly during our time together-- mistook the singer for Johnny Cash. If you were lead Angel Michael Gira, what would you be more flattered by: Passing for the "man in black", or conveying to someone who had remained so militantly mum about, quite literally, a thousand other bands? Whereas it once might have seemed ludicrous, the comparison is no longer that far off: Nearly 20 years removed from his work with seminal sadist folk-rockers Swans, Gira sounds sobered (if not necessarily sober) and peacefully wearied. Without the drone-soaked meditations and wild-eyed dynamic spirograms, Gira's music is now, shockingly, almost docile. For that alone, Sing "Other People" is a gutsy record. It maintains the band's lo-fi intimacy while expanding its breadth to include back-up singing and more voluminous instrumentation. Fans of Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home, the Angels' tumultuous 2003 stab at lysergic folk, shouldn't be faulted for thinking they're hearing a different band altogether. Part......
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ANGELS OF LIGHT | Other People | Review
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popmatters.com | Mike SchillerMore characters inhabit this album than most of the books I've read lately.Rating: 8 US release date: 22 March 2005 UK release date: Available as import A Story for Everybody At about the three-quarter mark of The Angels of Light Sing "Other People", the newest album from Michael Gira's Angels of Light, a beautiful serene calm takes over. Those familiar with Gira's output over the course of his career generally know better than to expect anything that can be described as "calm" when he's at the forefront of a musical project -- "quiet" or "subdued", perhaps, but never so lacking in tension as to be described as "calm" -- yet "To Live Through Someone" gets by on quiet guitars and a gentle ebb and flow that could rock its listeners quietly to sleep if they're not careful. As if to address this stylistic incongruity, Gira sings in a baritone courageously pushed to the absolute front of the mix: "No, I'm not what I was or will ever become / Just watching, now waiting, to live through someone... else". And there, after the lion's share of the album has passed, lies the mission statement of The Angels of......
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Akron/Family | Review
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prefixmag.com | Josiah HughesIn a perfect combination of inspired production, innovative instrumentation and transcendent songwriting, Akron/Family is a richly layered and flowing album that is as emotional as it is challenging.rating: 4.0 The recent popularity of freaked-out psych-folk has brought new meaning to the concept of the pop album. Whether it is the stripped-down meanderings of Devendra Banhart or the mixed-up gospel of Br. Danielson, the idea of the pop album has been transformed by fearless innovation in song writing, production and genre. If anyone understands this, it’s Young God's latest signees, Akron/Family. By combining sincere songwriting with a keen understanding of layering sound with varied production styles, Akron/Family, a four-piece from Brooklyn, has already transcended category with its eponymous debut full-length. Similar to Sufjan Stevens’s work, Akron/Family is characterized by sincere folk songs textured with instrumentation and connected by avant-garde sound passages. The band’s style recalls weird-pop acts like Animal Collective and Deerhoof, but where those artists explore the extremities of noise-pop, Akron/Family works with subtler experimentation. Using conventional instruments alongside unconventional objects, Akron/Family spends as much time in catchy melodies as it does in territories of noise. Opener "Before and Again" begins as a lo-fi pop song with......