By:
On:
In: _CD Reviews 2010, _Four or More 2010, Album Reviews, Recommended
With: 0 Comments

The Ruby Suns – “Fight Softly”Sub Pop-out tomorrow!4 / 5 Open this new pop/ psychedelia release and just feel it fizz with freshness and glimmer. With a sound as chromatic and vibrant as their latest cover, New Zealand’s Ruby Suns exude a fondness for Animal Collective electronica and layering, while keeping clean, crisp, focused melody and vocals. “Mingus and Pike” sway with 80s-era synth and percussion, creating a soft, full sound that entrances, melodically darts to and fro like a minnow; “Why Kids Fail” is a highlight of a different color, one more earthy and weightier, combining a video-game style hook with driving drums. ThereRead More →

By:
On:
In: _CD Reviews 2010, _Four or More 2010, Album Reviews, Recommended
With: 0 Comments

Shearwater – “The Golden Archipelago”Matador Records-out now4.5 / 5 Starting with a tender opening, to the final notes that fall, we have one thing to say about this epic concept album: wow. The sixth full-length from the Austin, Texas band, “Golden Archipelago” is one of those rare albums that do not benefit from distracted car-driving, nor from sweaty, gym-pumping; in fact, the best way to take in the first listen, we’ve found, is simply to kick back and let it spin. Delicate melodies pervade throughout (“Hidden Lakes” carefully unfolds) and the instrumentals here are not merely “played” or “performed,” but orchestrated; the vocals, which alternateRead More →

By:
On:
In: _CD Reviews 2010, Album Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Gentle Friendly – “Ride Slow”Upset the Rhythm-out now3.5 / 5 This debut album from South London’s Gentle Friendly utilizes a thick, woven mesh of electronica (keyboard, dense guitars) to form a dizzying fog of sound that has drawn comparison to Animal Collective. While Gentle Friendly doesn’t have ACs’ harmonies, nor do they match the intricacy of AC’s sonic mayhem, they do have “Lovers Rock,” a song with a cool drone/sway and cyclical instrumentals akin to older Yo La Tengo. Sonically, it is from this latter band that these songs derive, and fans of such will find themselves in familiar, but fresh territory. Where Gentle FriendlyRead More →

By:
On:
In: _CD Reviews 2010, Album Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Motion Turns it On – Kaleidoscopic EquinoxChocolate Lab Records-out now2.5 / 5 Guitars ablaze comes punk shredders Motion Turns it On from the grand state of Texas. Akin to White Denim stylistically, though with two times the drive, “Kaleidoscopic Equinox” is some of the most furious, manic ra-tah-tattah to grace our fair site. The vocals are spare and brief, meant only to dress the long and winding guitar shreds, and while those shreds are impressive on their own, there comes a point where enough is enough. To bring it back to White Denim, Motion Turns it On is all thunder and bluster, lacking the former’sRead More →