PRESS
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Listed: Akron/Family
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Dusted MagazineEvery Friday, Dusted Magazine publishes a series of music-related lists compiled by our favorite artists. This week: The dual-minded Akron/Family.Arriving in New York City three years ago, quartet Akron/Family immediately set to work in their Brooklyn apartment documenting the various paths they traced with their seemingly all-encompassing musical reach. After recording a couple albums worth of folk/noise/improv/pop oddness, they came to the attention of Young God's Michael Gira. The band's self-titled debut for Gira's label features some of the fruits of that home-recorded labor, in addition to some nicely edited, fine-tuned jams. So impressed was Mr. Gira that he tapped Akron/Family to form the backing band for his new Angels of Light disc, The Angels of Light Sing "Other People," which was also released this week. Live, Akron/Family strikes a neat contrast between moments of composed beauty and fits of inspired improvisation that is truly a sight to behold. Oh, and they also have beards! This week's listed was a group effort. --------The Radically Dual top 10---------- No. 1 Cover Song: Nina Simone covering "Suzanne" by L. Cohen Covering "Suzanne" is no easy task. First of all, the limitless approaches that one could take are dizzying, second of all......
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Akron/Family
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smother.net It sure is different and demands to be heardBeginning with a humming vocal reminiscent of Crash Test Dummies, Akron/Family steps back from other comparisons with a noodled indie rock flair that's typically reserved for outright nutty geniuses mad with musical clarity. It's as if Americana and roots rock are filtered through alternative rock's creativity and found its way onto the analog tapes that Akron/Family assembled. At times it sways into utter madness with samples whirling about as vocals collapse into themselves. Then it switches gears and becomes catchy with harmonies that you'd expect from a chart-topper. Then in goes the gear shift into reverse and it all goes back to this side of eclectic. It sure is different and demands to be heard by not just your everyday average John Doe but producers should be warned this album will insist that you attempt to digest all its many wanton sounds....
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akron/family & angels of light
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The Big Takeover | by Kurt Orzeckakron/family: s/t angels of light: sing other peopleIf a UFO hijacked a bunch of good old boys jamming on their back porch, Deliverance style, the music of the Akron/Family would be the likely result. This rural psychedelic quartet combines high lonesome hill vocals with beautiful harmonies and acoustic instruments with electronic space age flourishes. Their music sometimes moves like sap through a tree pushing out a rich organic fluid that oozes like a backwoods Beach Boy symphony. At times they build up cacophonic climaxes but soon relax into their strange but satisfying folk territory. Michael Gira (late of The Swans,) was so captivated by the sound of the Akron/Family that he joined forces with them for his latest release. There’s no escaping thoughts of his former band when you hear Gira sing, he still possesses that serious tone of gloom even as the music burbles brightly behind him. The result is a record somewhat at cross purposes, with the lively backup set off by Gira’s grim intonation. Unless the listener is already a fan of Gira, The Angels of Light record may be a challenge. Conversely, The Akron/Family CD should easily appeal to followers......
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akron/family & angels of light
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The Big Takeover | by Kurt Orzeckakron/family: s/t angels of light: sing other peopleIf a UFO hijacked a bunch of good old boys jamming on their back porch, Deliverance style, the music of the Akron/Family would be the likely result. This rural psychedelic quartet combines high lonesome hill vocals with beautiful harmonies and acoustic instruments with electronic space age flourishes. Their music sometimes moves like sap through a tree pushing out a rich organic fluid that oozes like a backwoods Beach Boy symphony. At times they build up cacophonic climaxes but soon relax into their strange but satisfying folk territory. Michael Gira (late of The Swans,) was so captivated by the sound of the Akron/Family that he joined forces with them for his latest release. There’s no escaping thoughts of his former band when you hear Gira sing, he still possesses that serious tone of gloom even as the music burbles brightly behind him. The result is a record somewhat at cross purposes, with the lively backup set off by Gira’s grim intonation. Unless the listener is already a fan of Gira, The Angels of Light record may be a challenge. Conversely, The Akron/Family CD should easily appeal to followers......
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The Angels of Light Sing Other People | Review
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dosomethingpretty.com | Jonathan FalconeThis release takes folk music and country in a new, more hardened, direction5/5 Michael Gira used to be in Swans, they were one of the most devastatingly powerful bands ever. They played music so loud it was barely listen able and so slow its changes were like ice caps shunting, hardly noticeable, but backed with unrivalled force. He now has his own Young God label, and its output is somewhat different to those accustomed to Swans. Yet it is no less glorious, for ŒOther People¹ is the slow dirge regrets of Johnny Cash backed by chiming clocks and welling country choirs. ³I know somewhere there¹s a God¹ Giras croons deeply in ŒDestroyer¹, and it strikes like thunder in the soul: a preacher venting his frustration on the lord, tired of his work receiving no tangible rewards. ŒOther People¹ masterfully contrasts the lulling nature of folk music and its soft contemplations with a voice of grit and orchestral arrangements that out-speed GSYBE at their most frantic and infected. This release takes folk music and country in a new, more hardened, direction. The Soul of Swans in a sea of fiddles and banjos, can it get more blissful?...