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Akron/Family | Review
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Cokemachineglow.com | Scott Reidyou've never heard an album quite like thisYeah, we know, you've heard it all, right? You're a pretty dedicated indie music fan, you keep up as much as you can; you read a couple of online pubs regularly, you know all the latest ridiculous genre variants being tossed around, you've got open access to all the free music your ears can half-ingest before moving on to something else. You're probably confident nothing can surprise you, certainly no gimmick that you'd describe as "new." Hell, in the past year alone, you've heard melodramatics whine about incest, meow like kittens, fill out a record with extremely fake casio presets and falsetto about pig-fucking. You heard an aged genius making sheep noises, a vaguely electro-pop album made entirely out of voices and, uh, Joanna Newsom. Take a rest, you deserve one. But Akron/Family --- masterminded by four NYC based multi-instrumentalists (Young God/Angel of Light's Michael Gira guesses they're capable of playing about 50 instruments, though I call some serious bullshit unless we're actually including "instruments" listed like bags of change; else, colour me pretty fucking impressed) that has developed its own ethic/philosophy titled "AK AK" --- might just prove you......
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Akron/Family | Review
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Cokemachineglow.com | Scott Reidyou've never heard an album quite like thisYeah, we know, you've heard it all, right? You're a pretty dedicated indie music fan, you keep up as much as you can; you read a couple of online pubs regularly, you know all the latest ridiculous genre variants being tossed around, you've got open access to all the free music your ears can half-ingest before moving on to something else. You're probably confident nothing can surprise you, certainly no gimmick that you'd describe as "new." Hell, in the past year alone, you've heard melodramatics whine about incest, meow like kittens, fill out a record with extremely fake casio presets and falsetto about pig-fucking. You heard an aged genius making sheep noises, a vaguely electro-pop album made entirely out of voices and, uh, Joanna Newsom. Take a rest, you deserve one. But Akron/Family --- masterminded by four NYC based multi-instrumentalists (Young God/Angel of Light's Michael Gira guesses they're capable of playing about 50 instruments, though I call some serious bullshit unless we're actually including "instruments" listed like bags of change; else, colour me pretty fucking impressed) that has developed its own ethic/philosophy titled "AK AK" --- might just prove you......
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AKRON/FAMILY | Review
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othermusic.comIntroverted, slightly experimental pop with interesting songwriting and well-executed production ideasBrooklyn-based quartet Akron/Family are the first band to have an album released on Michael Gira's Young God label in the wake of Devendra Banhart's massive success. On the surface, these four bearded fellows in knit caps look like they probably have a lot in common with the current wave of psychedelic folk revivalists, but they're actually quite different. Sure, there are some flutes and jew's harps in the mix, and their mellowest songs utilize loads of acoustic guitar, but their influences are a bit more all-over-the-map than you might guess. Their self-titled album actually sounds a little tiny bit like the most recent albums by Radiohead, albeit quite a bit more sparse and with a less extravagant budget. Another comparison that immediately comes to mind is Ugly Casanova, the mostly-acoustic one-off collaboration between Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock and his friends from Califone and the Black Heart Procession. The guitar solo on "Suchness" is totally Spiritualized circa Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, and when the strings and chimes come in on "Shoes," the influence of the Flaming Lips' beloved Soft Bulletin album is very much apparent. At......
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ANGELS OF LIGHT Sing Other People | Review
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othermusic.comHis ongoing distillation could prove to be a beneficial example to the now-popular movement he has otherwise helped to foster anyway.Michael Gira continues down an emotionally pointillist path here, yet this time around he appears to have swerved onto the somewhat wider, and zeitgeist-bricked, new folk freeway. This has probably to do with his helping to usher in the career of one of its leading lights, Devendra Banhart, and as well in his electing to bring the amiably cosmic, comparatively fresh-faced Akron/Family in as his backing band for this particular release. Whereas he at least presently directs the general thematic emphases in the music towards an archetypal Western/Southwestern nature, and far more avidly than someone like Banhart does (or Joanna Newsom, or Animal Collective), he is also more reliant upon a clear and classic stentorian vocal manner in keeping with all of this. His ongoing distillation could prove to be a beneficial example to the now-popular movement he has otherwise helped to foster anyway. [DHo]...
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AKRON/FAMILY | Review
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othermusic.comIntroverted, slightly experimental pop with interesting songwriting and well-executed production ideasBrooklyn-based quartet Akron/Family are the first band to have an album released on Michael Gira's Young God label in the wake of Devendra Banhart's massive success. On the surface, these four bearded fellows in knit caps look like they probably have a lot in common with the current wave of psychedelic folk revivalists, but they're actually quite different. Sure, there are some flutes and jew's harps in the mix, and their mellowest songs utilize loads of acoustic guitar, but their influences are a bit more all-over-the-map than you might guess. Their self-titled album actually sounds a little tiny bit like the most recent albums by Radiohead, albeit quite a bit more sparse and with a less extravagant budget. Another comparison that immediately comes to mind is Ugly Casanova, the mostly-acoustic one-off collaboration between Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock and his friends from Califone and the Black Heart Procession. The guitar solo on "Suchness" is totally Spiritualized circa Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, and when the strings and chimes come in on "Shoes," the influence of the Flaming Lips' beloved Soft Bulletin album is very much apparent. At......