PRESS
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Angels of Light Sing Other People
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Copper Press | Christian Careya dozen delicate chamber pop songsThe cover photos for The Angels of Light Sing "Other People" are deliberately blurry, to better obscure the identities of some of the subjects of songs on the album. However, there is nothing unfocused about the music on this CD. The group's leader and principal songwriter, Michael Gira (former steward of the art-rock band Swans), deploys his expressive bass voice in a dozen delicate chamber pop songs. Sometimes his mellifluous delivery glides from pitch to pitch and to places "in the cracks between the keys", evoking a dash of Lou Reed. But these moments of "speech song" are more than balanced here by a series of memorable sung choruses. He is joined by Akron/Family, who serve as collaborators rather than merely back-up musicians, crafting a glimmering sound world that borrows liberally from the folk-rock tradition. Strummed acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, a halo of synthesizer pads, and occasional touches of reeds and percussion make for an intriguing combination of directness and intricacy. While the songs on Other People are ostensibly about specific people (and Swan/Gira fans will doubtless be able to match several songs to their respective subjects), most identifying details have......
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AKRON/FAMILY | Review
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dosomethingpretty.com | Jonathan FalconeAn album of unmatched beauty.4/5 Akron/Family are a four-piece, the singer sings like an angel, and they waltz through country songs that leaving you marvelling at their beauty. These aren¹t normal folk songs though. These folk songs are meshed with electronic beeps, clatters and whirls. Part Grateful Dead in their more pastoral hymnals and part Silver Apples in their non-stop aluminium-noise assault, it makes for deeply textured songs that always look upwards, aspiring to the skies. Sharing a use of sampled mutters and sighs-made-beats as utilised by fellow folk eccentrics Hood, an autumnal air haunts the record. ŒRunning, Returning¹ is the Smashing Pumpkins playing bluegrass, explosive power is contained in tight banjo lines and train-track drums. Radiohead couldn¹t even dream of touching the sincerity of the pleas on display here. ŒShoes¹ is hope given music  aspirations of the impossible that somehow feel attainable - a soft crescendo grows in volume and culminates in a wall of glorious country harmonies. An album of unmatched beauty....
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AKRON/FAMILY | Review
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dosomethingpretty.com | Jonathan FalconeAn album of unmatched beauty.4/5 Akron/Family are a four-piece, the singer sings like an angel, and they waltz through country songs that leaving you marvelling at their beauty. These aren¹t normal folk songs though. These folk songs are meshed with electronic beeps, clatters and whirls. Part Grateful Dead in their more pastoral hymnals and part Silver Apples in their non-stop aluminium-noise assault, it makes for deeply textured songs that always look upwards, aspiring to the skies. Sharing a use of sampled mutters and sighs-made-beats as utilised by fellow folk eccentrics Hood, an autumnal air haunts the record. ŒRunning, Returning¹ is the Smashing Pumpkins playing bluegrass, explosive power is contained in tight banjo lines and train-track drums. Radiohead couldn¹t even dream of touching the sincerity of the pleas on display here. ŒShoes¹ is hope given music  aspirations of the impossible that somehow feel attainable - a soft crescendo grows in volume and culminates in a wall of glorious country harmonies. An album of unmatched beauty....
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ADVANCE LISTING FOR TONIC SHOW
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The New YorkerAKRON/FAMILY - ANGELS OF LIGHT 107 Norfolk St. (212-358-7503)‹March 11: The Angels of Light, the protean group led by the ex-Swans front man and impresario Michael Gira, join Akron/Family, Gira¹s newest discovery, for a double record-release party to benefit this troubled downtown venue (it is facing eviction, in part because the rent money has gone to capital repairs, the latest of which involves a failed sewage pipe). Gira produced Akron/Family¹s self-titled début record, and he enjoyed working with the band so much that they backed him for his own new record, ³The Angels of Light Sing ŒOther People.¹² Gira sings over a slew of instruments (including organ, banjo, Casio keyboards, and glockenspiel), and the music is full of country picking, slide guitar, and beautiful backup singing from his youthful (the oldest member is twenty-six) and earnest band. The Akron/Family, for their part, play passionate and unorthodox folk music that embraces dissonant rock guitar and Beach Boys-like vocal harmonies, as well as more traditional mournful balladry....
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ADVANCE LISTING FOR TONIC SHOW
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The New YorkerANGELS OF LIGHT  AKRON/FAMILY 107 Norfolk St. (212-358-7503)‹March 11: The Angels of Light, the protean group led by the ex-Swans front man and impresario Michael Gira, join Akron/Family, Gira¹s newest discovery, for a double record-release party to benefit this troubled downtown venue (it is facing eviction, in part because the rent money has gone to capital repairs, the latest of which involves a failed sewage pipe). Gira produced Akron/Family¹s self-titled début record, and he enjoyed working with the band so much that they backed him for his own new record, ³The Angels of Light Sing ŒOther People.¹² Gira sings over a slew of instruments (including organ, banjo, Casio keyboards, and glockenspiel), and the music is full of country picking, slide guitar, and beautiful backup singing from his youthful (the oldest member is twenty-six) and earnest band. The Akron/Family, for their part, play passionate and unorthodox folk music that embraces dissonant rock guitar and Beach Boys-like vocal harmonies, as well as more traditional mournful balladry....