Anticipation can be a relatively deceptive thing. It has no bearing on the actual result of a product or action, even if hype can sway us otherwise. I can only imagine how the few remaining Guns N’ Roses fans felt those 15 years between new albums, only to experience Chinese Democracy as an average release that was typically reflective of aging rockers. For their age and lack of recent experience it was actually pretty good, but “living up to the hype” is difficult to accomplish when years of inactivity build up. It almost seems safer for bands to go with the In Rainbows method, where a surprise announcement was made two weeks prior to release. Although they lack the on and off-stage embarrassments of Axl Rose, the 13 years it took Flotation Walls to release a new album nearly compares to the span of Chinese Democracy. There was no major press coverage for nearly two decades, but those around Flotation Walls’ native city have been following the collective for quite some time. Columbus, Ohio have been fond of Carlos Avendaño’s various incarnations since 1996, when the first conception of Flotation Walls was introduced. The long-awaited release of their debut full-length should expand that demographic significantly, as the years of acquired experience has propelled Flotation Walls to territory only familiar to those that are already venerated and influential.

A 13-year hiatus to begin your career is difficult to grasp, but it simply makes Nature one of the most experienced debuts you are going to hear. The release is chock full of so many ideas that it sounds like a band chronicling their career, rather than exposing it to listeners for the first time. It remains stylistically unpredictable without drowning in its own ambition, maintaining the perfect mixture between caressing indie-folk and unclassifiable strokes of genius that encompass parts Afro-pop, yé-yé, and IDM electronica. Part of this multifarious brilliance can be attributed to Avendaño’s patience, which restrained him from even working on Nature until 2004. This allowed nearly a decade of practice and thought before even starting Flotation Walls’ sprawling debut, which sounds more polished and confident than most releases in the flexible genre of art-pop. The group relies on choral odes, sweeping orchestral accompaniments, and stylistic precision as their primary strengths, touching upon both theatrical alt-rock in efforts like “Frozen Lake” and haunting psych-folk in “Kids, Look at the Waves”. Both make excellent use of vocal samples, placed and used accordingly in relation to the style at hand. The chugging and solemn acoustics of “Kids, Look at the Waves” are accompanied by a chorus of what sounds like a cross between a hushed church choir and a procession of pleading spirits. As Avendaño propels his narrative sputtering into a full-scaled fury, the percussion intensifies as the backing samples convey more prominence. It is one instance of many in which Nature provides the listener with extreme depth in regard to both musical layers and emotional precision.

Nature is ambitiously successful without appearing pretentious because of its shared use of both the conventional and avant-garde, with the latter often appearing more subtly in tracks that initially have the feel of a radio-friendly gem. “Frozen Lake” inherits a very traditional structure and anthemic sort of bleakness, though there remains certain components like reversed strings, reverbed whistling, and whirring crescendos that make this more reminiscent of post-rock. Like many of the tracks on Nature, its somber instrumentation collides wonderfully with optimistic lyrics that often use nature-oriented imagery as metaphors to life’s routinely struggles. “They watch as we mate and cross-pollinate from nests and hives,” Avendaño sings with glee over polka-like accordions on the opening “Sperm & Egg”, reminding me distinctively of the theme surrounding Mirah‘s Share This Place: Stories and Observations (a concept album revolving around the lives of insects). Like Mirah or contemporaries in the vein Of Montreal, Flotation Walls implement thematic progressions with ease over ambitious stylistic works despite any impulsive instances of sloppiness that may serve as a consequence. Those moments are rarely found on Nature, from to a delicate piano-led ballad in “The Sky Ejaculates”. A ballad, that is, until a beautiful array of woodwinds and hectic keys lead a conclusive charge of brilliance. It is exemplary of the group’s rash and unpredictable structural nature, a tendency that works to their benefit throughout Nature. They hold nothing back and stunning melodies are constructed as a result. If listeners can exemplify even half the patience Avendaño did when creating this album, they will be greatly awarded.

“Although I hate my face, although I take up space, the sky ejaculates,” are words spoken on the previous track, and although it serves as an interesting albeit simplistic poetic gesture it avoids placidity through its accompaniments. Nature almost plays like a musical in that sense, since Avendaño articulately arranged each track in accordance to the lyrical content at hand. This particular moment of “The Sky Ejaculates” is exposed when Avendaño’s vocals are growling with predetermined angst, a tidbit that would have never been predictable at the serene, key-driven opening of the song. “The Flickering Projection” and “Willis the Fireman” are more conventional in this sense, with their respective aims in psyche-rock and indie-pop, but still maintain their melodic and narrative allure through some excellent instrumentation and vocal performances (which listeners will grow accustomed to by the album’s third or fourth track). Ryan Stolte-Sawa provides quite a bit with his contributions on piano, synthesizer, and violin, while bassist Zak Moses and drummer Luke Brevoort comprise a very active rhythm section that is most impressive on an effort like “Worms”, where the trickling of percussion often resembles a growing infestation that grows in alliance with progressing guitars and synths. When the imminent explosion of anthemic bliss occurs with all sorts of brass, choral samples, and rhythmic expression, it should properly prepare listeners for an album like Nature. This is one of those rare releases that accomplishes intricate ambition without pretentious consequences, which is an association only the most inventive and confident can avoid.

RIYL: Of Montreal, Mirah, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, The Polyphonic Spree, Bryan Scary, Architecture in Helsinki, Kings of Convenience, Grandaddy, Tripping Daisy, The Flaming Lips

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Flotation Walls – The Flickering Projection

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Flotation Walls – Frozen Lake

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Flotation Walls – Kids, Look at the Waves

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Flotation Walls – Sperm & Egg

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Nathan Pemberton refuses to abide by the DIY stereotype. He records in his Florida garage with an economical home studio, which supplies just enough firepower for him to make his innovations come alive. But despite the allure of lo-fi minimalism that comes attached with these modest circumstances, Pemberton is pursuing the most majestic sound possible in accordance to his personal repertoire. He is a multi-instrumentalist in the truest sense, using his experience with a multitude of instruments to encompass his material in its entirety. There are few collaborators to be heard, only the ideas of Pemberton and his five friends/roommates as they flow gracefully in a mixture of epic jams and dreamily intricate indie-rock. They go under the alias of Holiday Shores, a name that will certainly be reputable by year’s end. Hip-hop, punk or metal, and lo-fi pop have always seemed to be the easiest to tackle with a home studio due to their respective forays in sampling, tremolo riffs, and bare minimalism, but Pemberton, Holiday Shores’ songwriter, seems to have crafted a winning combination with doses of heartfelt pop nostalgia and contemporary indie-rock wizardry. He possesses the ambition of a jam band or post-rock experimenters, all while retaining the pop sensibilities that fellow genre-mashing contemporaries like Sunset Rubdown and Deerhunter have flawlessly exhibited throughout the past several years. But do not overly associate Holiday Shores with these acts. After all, their greatest strengths are in their own ideas, not the inspiration of others.

Being seemingly aware of your past and present is simply one of Pemberton’s strengths, as concocting an original sound from a variety of influences is not the only ingredient required for success. Songwriting and flow are both elements that are overlooked by many groups new and old, not necessarily because they disvalue it but because it is so difficult to combine great and captivating songwriting with a sound that is entirely your own, whether it derives from past successes or not. Pemberton accomplishes this tricky venture with rare precision, making the best of his garage studio to unveil his enigmatic voice and compositional prowess in a manner that should mark Holiday Shores as one of 2009’s breakthrough acts. Pemberton’s pop sensibilities often result in songs barely exceeding four minutes, but both his capitalization of minimal resources and extremely impressive grasp of several instrumentals combine for unconventional endeavors that make four-minute efforts feel epic in the best way possible. For instance, the sputtery “Days Drag” uses the echoes of guitar distortion to craft an initial feeling of rough-edged repetition, only to be beautifully complemented by a twinkling bundle of keys. The transitional phases that this song encompasses, like many others on its album, are always one step ahead of their subsequent outcomes, resulting in an album full of replay value.

On Holiday Shores’ debut album, Columbus’d The Whim, the initial development always turns into something extremely gratifying and precise, like the keys in “Days Drag” or the evolution of muffled percussion into expansive hi-hats in “Tremor Rolls the Peak”. These turns are unexpected, but Pemberton’s strong pop ties often make the ideas sound extremely appealing after the second or even first listen. A beauty like “Edge of Our Lives” requires only a few minutes to recognize its brilliance though, sounding like the perfect mash of a lost ‘60s classic and today’s indie-pop breeziness. I would be surprised if it is not a college-radio favorite by year’s end. Between Pemberton’s tranquil voice, the interweaving guitar arrangements, and explosive hook that the chorus crisply generates, this is a surefire accomplishment in every regard. That it is difficult to spot the hook I am referring to is part of the song’s allure; there are so many different methods of achieving melodic greatness here that describing only one is an injustice. There also seems to be a slight undertone of jazz in the use of keys and guitar, again beckoning to jam bands of the past and their tendency to unveil pop hooks under an intricate cast of evolving instrumentation. This may be one of the album’s more accessible tracks, but there are few that show the group’s apparent high level of musicianship as well.

Comparisons, as I mentioned before though, are a bit extraneous in regard to Holiday Shores, as so many influences can be found in their sound that it eventually becomes influentially indistinguishable. However, as a songwriter and vocalist, Pemberton seems to recall the ingenious ability of Tom Verlaine most vividly. Like many up-and-coming indie-rock acts these days, the work of Verlaine and Television is a strong influence in Pemberton’s sound. This is most notable in his songs’ ability to evolve into full-scaled epics, usually with the innovative pushing of a particular instrument (most often in a soaring guitar solo or trickle of keys). He also emits a similar croon, finding a warm place between nasally elegance and brittle yelps over series of concise guitar progressions and hectically implemented keyboards. It all depends on the track though, as Columbus’d The Whim is so enthused with its own ambition that it achieves greatness on its innovation alone. But considering it IS a pop album at heart, the stellar songwriting of Pemberton certainly helps the cause. Both fans of modern indie-rock and nostalgic pop music will likely embrace Holiday Shores because of this, not only because it can remind them of their favorite bands, but also allow them to discover a new one in the process. I consider Columbus’d The Whim one of this year’s must-haves. It is an enormous accomplishment for any album, making its status as a debut album that much more impressive.

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Holiday Shores – Edge of Our Lives

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Holiday Shores – Tremor Rolls the Peak

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Holiday Shores – Days Drag

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As the historically implied name of his solo project may suggest, songwriter Leo Maymind finds contentment in writing songs that disregard time, place, and age to the fullest extent. Under his Spanish Prisoners alias, one can come to expect both a veneration for a variety of a musical styles and the thoroughly intricate lyrical content that accompanies it. I have to say though, the thing that caught my attention first regarding Maymind was when the budding songwriter mentioned to me that he was friends with Deer Tick, also known as the talented John McCauley (whose debut album was one of my favorites in 2007). I have often found that musicians often churn out a similar degree of quality in their music to those other musicians they are connected to, whether it be through collaboration or merely friendship. With this in mind, I made the assumption that Maymind had a similar degree of focused musicianship and cumulative dexterity. Though such a method of belief certainly does not always prove to be correct, I was glad to discover that the exceptional quality on Spanish Prisoners’ debut album, Songs to Forget, speaks for itself. Though their folk-rooted styles remain somewhat similar in delivery, Maymind presents a style that often feels more structurally concise and electrically compiled in comparison to McCauley. Enough with the comparisons though; Songs to Forget stands on its own for Maymind as a notable achievement and hopefully the first of many.

Maymind was born in Latvia, a country in Northern Europe near Estonia and Lithuania. He moved to New Orleans at the age of 3 with his parents, shortly being introduced to the city’s unparalleled music scene. He later ended up in Columbus, Ohio and it was here where the creation process began for the early works of Spanish Prisoners. Recording in a low-budget basement studio “after the hours of 10 pm when the neighborhood traffic slowed and the joyous screams of children slowly drifted off”, Songs to Forget ironically first saw the day of light at night in an eroded basement studio. But hey, listening to the album’s final product, the atmosphere must have worked. Some other tracks on the album were recorded in a substantially more professional manner with producer Jack Mckeever (Rufus Wainwright) and engineer Jim Diamond (the White Stripes, The Ponys) in NYC. The album also includes contributions from Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, Jessamine, The Sun, and Southeast Engine. You can stream the entire album for free on Maymind’s VIRB page. With Songs to Forget just recently available for download, Maymind has already racked up a variety of critical acclaim in addition to playing live with acts like The Rosebuds, Castanets, and Califone. So far, so good.

Now out on Exit Stencil Recordings, Songs to Forget holds the name of an album that proves to be quite the opposite in effect. Featuring 10 tracks that are anything but forgettable, Maymind’s performance skills glide seamlessly as he presents a colorful assortment of various instruments over a voice that is delivered as a likable blend of several prominent influences that are most prevalently reminiscent of Leonard Cohen, Isaac Brock, and Stephen Malkmus. Though his vocals remains conventional and largely familiar, Maymind’s instrumental prowess remains more difficult to pinpoint. Several other groups do make vital instrumental contributions on the album but Maymind’s presentation of acoustic and electric guitars, keys, harmonicas, strings, and a variety of others provide for an excitable listening experience that blends aromas of folk, rock, and blues into one engaging proposition. Despite the wide array of instrumentation, Songs to Forget never seems overwhelming or overproduced. Maymind does this all while alternating his stylistic approach on a whim too. Whether it is the electro-aided form of indie-rock on “A Thousand Zimmermans” and “Some Among Them Are Killers” or the acoustic crooner in “How the Fallen Fall” and the delicately touching closing piano-led “Ballad of an Unfolding”, the casual listener should come to expect substantial variation from Spanish Prisoner’s debut.

“Dear Just Curious” is one of the most polished songs on Songs to Forget, aided by a swift piano melody that is overlyed by a series of a guitars and an extremely effective rhythm section. In comparison to more ardently pensive songs in the vein of “Ballad of an Unfolding” or the lush, string-aided beauty of “Mantequilla”, “Dear, Just Curious” is certainly more pop-oriented in structure and presentation. This is where Songs to Forget capitalizes on Maymind’s strengths though; he scatters an assortment of varying songs throughout the album, with an evenly placed array of ballads, pop songs, and rock songs to satisfy all intended listeners. “Song for the Weary” is arguably the most unique track on the album, interchanging lo-fi guitar strums with a plethora of Southern strings and country-induced harmonics. The chorus is especially touching, featuring the use of backing vocals that appear boisterous but highly effective. Though it is not the best display of Maymind’s outstanding talent, “Some Among Them Are Killers” is blatantly one of the most accessible songs on the album, relying largely on rhythm and guitars in an eventual supplementation for a simplistically contagious chorus. Still though, I recommend everyone to check out his more ardent songs in the vein of “Ballad of an Unfolding” and “Mantequilla”; those spectacles serve as some of the best examples of Maymind’s inarguable skill, both instrumentally and lyrically.

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Spanish Prisoners – Dear Just Curious

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Spanish Prisoners – Song for the Weary

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Spanish Prisoners – Some Among Them Are Killers

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If you asked any local in Columbus, Ohio with even the slightest grasp of music who Moviola is, they would most likely respond brightly, describing the band’s career with a glow on their face, even comparing them to local legends Guided by Voices, before shifting suddenly into a look of dismay while being reminded of Moviola’s lack of success outside Ohio. Indeed, Moviola are one of those bands who have their entire state of origination behind them, even if their universal status is generally unknown. Either way, Ohio has kept the band going for six albums, with their seventh being released this year. Consisting of Jake Housh, Ted Hattemer, Greg Bonnell, and Jerry Dannemiller, Moviola appears to have their beliefs set on equal distribution. Several of the members play a variety of instruments and you are most likely to find sets of about three or four different vocalists on the album, though Jake Housh is often considered the primary vocalist. While their sound is inconsistent and often undefinable, the diversity has built them a steady local fan base who finds great joy in the four-piece’s unpredictable behavior. I would have to give them props as well, as releasing seven albums without sounding repetitive is a much more difficult feat than it sounds. They all met while students at Ohio State University, which is the location in which all four hold jobs to this day. I suppose you could call their stay at the home of the Buckeyes their only consistent aspect.

Their first release came in Frantic, an EP released in 1992 that later saw a reissue in 2000. Their first full-length, The Year You Were Born, was released in 1996, over three years after Frantic, and drew comparisons to several local bands like Robert Pollard’s Guided by Voices. The Pollard comparison came in the style of Moviola’s lo-fi approach, often incorporating distinct melodies over several aspects of alternative and country; slide guitar, endearing vocals, and slow-shifting percussion. Throughout the years, Moviola’s sound has remained largely the same with indistinguishable patterns and unpredictable structures, all while presenting entertaining forms of songwriting with different musical styles often peeking through. The majority of the albums also appear to be quite lengthy, with thirteen or fourteen tracks of longing songs being the norm. However, with such a diverse style being utilized in each song, most of the releases have never become tiring or dull. Their most exceptional release is often considered 2000’s Durable Dream, an album that was a particularly rousing presentation that rendered most of the group’s strong points with romantically symbolical lyrics and devastating instrumentation.

Their seventh release, Dead Knowledge, has a bit of an ironic name considering the band’s aged experience and knowledge regarding what it takes to produce and write an album. Really, it is far from dead at this point. This album is where Moviola begins to finally show their age, and I mean that in a complementary sense, as this is the album where the four members implement their previous successes while abandoning flaws of the past. In doing so, they have crafted an album that may even grow on me to become more likable than Durable Dream. Mainly touching on country and traditional folk tinged by electric elements, tracks like the romantically piano-based “Rudy” and the enjoyably murky “Au Revoir Blues” are both fantastic displays of diversity and stylistic comprehension. Even more ambitious tracks like the reverb on the bare gospel-laced vocal “Tears In A Jar” add a sense of fulfillment to an album that maintains recognition even with the substantial amount of diversifying factors. “Rudy” is a track that tugs at the heart a bit, relaying a tale of two lovers whose educational intelligence was irrelevant compared to their longing admiration for one another. “We’re standing outside in the pouring rain,” the band admirably lets out. “Between the two of us we’ve got about half a brain.”

“Don’t I Know” is another entertaining track, adding a saxophone, piano, electric guitar, and steady percussion to create a song that sounds both nostalgically familiar and refreshingly enlightening. Dead Knowledge closes quite fittingly with the distorted “Au Revoir Blues”, a righteous song that is touched fully by a set of vocals that are reminiscent of Willy Nelson or Harry Nilsson. “Au Revoir Blues” is preceded by the interesting “Orpheum Leitmotif”, a jam track in which a guitar presents a free-form solo over a flurry of strings. While their entire career has drawn comparisons to figures like Robert Pollard, Dylan, and Nilsson, Dead Knowledge should finally be the album that brings Moviola into a realm of their own.

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Moviola – Rudy

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Moviola – Au Revoir Blues

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Moviola – Don’t I Know

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