by Andrew Kaster

If you find yourself tiring of familiar sounds while sitting atop the peak of modern critically acclaimed psychedelia, consider Young Prisms’ debut Friends for Now, an exhilarating breath of suspended free-fall into phosphorescent abyss. Eschewing the languorous nature of most shoegazer bands, Young Prisms enter realms of impertinent and concentrated rocking; antonymous to the preconceived notions of the genre. While somewhat as derivative as their contemporaries, there’s something about the peppy approach of this Californian quintet that makes their album more genuine than critics may be willing to admit. Taking a sonic shotgun to the ears, songs such as “I Don’t Get Much” and “Breathless” mark a terse statement on the band’s part as they ride on waves of raucous guitar and steady krautrock rhythms. Adding to their reputation as shoegazer revisionists are the momentous shifts in tempo and dynamics that appear in the tense and focused tracks “Sugar” and “Feel Fine”. The trip reaches its peak on the hallucinogenic and swaggering denouement “Stay Awake”, ending the assault on your cerebral cortex, leaving you half-deafened in its wake.

The only minor complaint I have about this album is the consistent effort they put into paying tribute to the genre, while keeping innovations somewhat restrained. Like all of their contemporaries, keyboards shimmer, drums echo, and voices whir only to evaporate, making for a distinctly familiar setting. The band’s main distinction (besides their uncharacteristically energetic nature) is the clear dichotomous composition of guitars. Though the oscillating tones meld into palpable and full-bodied atmospheres, you’ll often hear the guitars combat one another. As one enters bright and laconic lead parts, the other is taking broad strokes to paint a thick and vibrating buzz. Though somewhat jarring and heavy, there is a “lightness” to the music that keeps everything uniformly poppy, akin to Jonathan Donahue’s early work with Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips.

Shoegazer is often dubbed as “the scene that celebrates itself”, and it’s easy to see why; flouting the doctrine that these bands adhered to is a difficult thing to do. While Young Prisms hold onto tradition, they have taken a detour into a sunnier and more urgent world that makes Friends for Now such an engaging listening experience. Through their subtle surf-rock influences, bleeding heart chord changes, and ability to get locked into hypnotic dancey grooves, it is easy to excuse them for sprinkling “oohs” and “ahhs” and various other familiar sounds throughout the album. While most of their psychedelic-pop contemporaries are often staid, Young Prisms pull up their bootstraps and deliver shatteringly loud, droning neo-psychedelia that will leave you paralyzed.

RIYL: Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips, No Joy, Eternal Summers, Woodsman, Golden Ages, Sun Airway

Young Prisms – Sugar

Young Prisms – I Don’t Get Much

Young Prisms – If You Want To

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The post Young Prisms – Friends for Now (2011) appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

Bill Baird treats his fans well. He maintains a dedicated following that, if his new album Loveshines But The Moon Is Shining Too is any indication, should increase exponentially shortly. Baird appears quite kind to fans as well, as his tireless work ethic and dedication caught my attention in 2008, when he released two full-lengths in the span of five months. The quality of those two albums, Bright Blue Dream and The Glowing City, led me to the official release of Pink Clouds. Its first incarnation was as a cassette Baird had given to about 100 friends. But after one copy leaked, the band’s work ethic and dedication came out when they decided to re-release it in its true form. Their small but dedicated following deserved the best, at least according to the members of then-named {{{Sunset}}}. Baird and the rest of that group have been hard at work since then, dropping the ‘{{{‘ and ‘}}}’ from their name and sounding even better.

The shifting lineup that is Sunset appears to be in constant variation, but there are never signs of rustiness. Baird released a Sunset album last year entitled Gold Dissolves to Gray, but to me it sounded like a jumbled point of indecision between playful psychedelia and stabs at atmospherically-bound electronica. It sounded pretty and graceful, but pop hooks represent one of Baird’s most pronounced strength and there simply were not enough of them throughout Gold Dissolves to Gray. His fifth full-length, Loveshines But The Moon Is Shining Too, is different though. Baird’s grasp on delicate pop is still there, as his vocals never escalate with great authority despite emitting harmonious bliss, but the music benefits more from elements of pop that coincide with his twinkling vein of neo-psychedelia and folk. Experimentation is present but not to the extent of his previous effort, where fascination ad intrigue occasionally prevailed over common sense.

Loveshines But The Moon Is Shining Too gets on the right track immediately with opening “Heavy Light”, a track the combines the wintery, echoey key-laden allure of The Walkmen with the slick guitar-key harmonic collab that ’70s pop artists like Electric Light Orchestra perfected. Baird’s unique voice is as present as ever, shifting through an array of infectious coos and grunt-like tones that resemble both Neil Hannon and Beck, depending on the verse. Comparisons to other artists may be more evident here than on other Sunset releases, if only because Baird is less consumed with crafting an entirely unique sound and more focused on writing excellent pop songs. This is seen especially on tracks like “Heavy Light” and “Late Night Dawning”, the latter of which stars Crystal Fulbright and Red Hunter on vocals in a touching performance that really plays on Baird’s repeated use of tremolo. The accompaniments behind it, both on vocals and strings, are extraordinary and fully representative of Baird’s compositional prowess.

Seeing as how the original version of “Loveshines” was a song that I enjoyed and posted, it is no surprise that the original catches my attention as well. Its sequel though, “Loveshines II”, is even better. Baird slams on the keys with vigor, allowing the pulsating tremolo to eventually become engaged in a wonderful chorus that hearkens back to The Beatles’ psychedelic ballads in its outstanding use of strings. It sounds mysterious and enjoyably vintage, yet remains crisp enough to fit within Sunset’s arsenal of indie-pop and psychedelia. Baird has accomplished great things here, and it is certainly worth hearing.

RIYL: Electric Light Orchestra, Beck, The Walkmen, Brazos, The Bitters, Still Corners, Golden Ages, Grimes, Family Portrait, Pill Wonder, Tennis, Pearl Harbor, The Mantles, Pepi Ginsberg, Twin Sister, Summer Camp, Happy Birthday, Golden Triangle, Pure Ecstasy, Aska, The Delta Mirror

MP3: Sunset – Heavy Light

MP3: Sunset – Late Night Dawning

Official Site

Autobus Records

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How to Dress Well? The name sounds like some early 19th century etiquette pamphlet. Things like that tend to lose relevance after a decade. But like all remnants, they maintain historical value. Music, like all forms of art, provides timeless durability in the sheer experience of it, even if historical relevance provides varying outlooks on the theme or style. At heart though, the timeless characteristics of art resound consistently; the point in time of one’s experience inspires variables of reception and accessibility, dependent on social and technological standards of the time. But when it comes down to it, the witnessing of art presents feelings conceived no differently than they were hundreds of years ago.

The brains behind How to Dress Well, Tom Krell, provides a twist on the whole experience. His music is instantly familiar, injected with doses of R&B, soul, and pop that actually reach radio-friendly points of accessibility. Of course, when soaked in reverb, adorned with an echoed falsetto, and featuring a modernistic synth-laden sound, the clashing of both varying degrees of accessibility and time periods leaves room for plenty of great ideas. For Krell, comparisons to chillwave trademarks like Washed Out and Neon Indian are imminent based on his production alone. But How to Dress Well fall more in the vein of Ariel Pink, who uses his adoration for ’60s/’70s frontman art-rock to create a sound that is both hauntingly sad and infectiously vibrant. Of course, Neon Indian’s “Deadbeat Summer” just barely shows the extent of frontman Alan Palomo’s undying love for Todd Rundgren. But even the “Izzat Love” sample aside, the song sounded distinctively modern.

Unlike past motivators of the “chillwave” movement, Krell creates a sort of timeless whimsy within his beautifully fragile sound. Their music resounds with no particular decade, instead offering a meshing of both nostalgic and futuristic styles that bring out a variety of guesses from “some ’80s post-punk variant” to “Michael Jackson if he just chilled on blunts instead of pills”. The latter shows some indication of Krell’s obvious rhythmic ability, but more so in his vibrating falsetto that brings comparisons to MJ, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and even at times Antony Hegarty. Krell’s approach is, for the most part, what brings him such individual success though. His high pitch is not supposed to sound this great under a caressing assortment of synth pads and distorted bass. It does though. You really need to have your vocal rhythm down for that. And in that sense, Krell shows some outstanding talent in both his songwriting and vocal work, showcasing an ambiguous enigma that – for once – does not reek of pretension or greed. Just a genuine love for music of the past, present, and future. That is one aspect of this “chillwave” thing anyone could get behind.

Krell’s innovation is evident throughout the bulk of Love Remains, his debut full-length. His song are all treated with such delicate care, but the differences in ferocity are certainly evident. A track like “My Body” is solemn from the get-go, incorporating a series of layered falsetto that sound like a haunted choir. This in particular is reminiscent of Sigur Rós’ Jónsi. “We were known for the choice that we do, I was hoping for the rain, I was hoping for you,” Krell sings after percussion – which is used sparingly throughout Love Remains – enters the fold. The rhythm here is particularly important because the song’s R&B influence is extremely pronounced, with Krell even incorporating the post-verse falsetto yelps that artists like The-Dream show mastery of.

“Suicide Dream 2” is one of the more unclassifiable songs on the album, meaning that comparisons to R&B and pop take a backseat to serene electronica that sits somewhere between ambiance and soundtrack. If anything, the vein of dubstep that Burial specializes in is the focus here. The twinkling synths emit a melancholy feel that steadily repeats, its tempo and volume never shifting. Instead, Krell’s voice is what exhibits the emotional transitions; he is able to craft stellar hooks on his own with rare preciseness. His unconventional pitch is often the culprit of emotionally-charged mastery. Songs like “Escape Before the Rain” rely on little more than a simplistic piano progression, as echoey click-clacking and whirs of synth in the background provide a deeper audible experience. But Krell’s voice is almost always the emphasis, even around the 01:45 mark when he gives way to the piano loop. His return is imminent of course, and as soulful as ever. I can nearly guarantee that he is going to give chills to any attentive listener (and by attentive, I mean this is the type of artist that you must use good headphones or a stereo to listen to).

A flurry of funk is present in the vibrant rhythm section of “Endless Rain”, which incorporates a DJ Shadow-like loop clip for gradual accentuation. It would be really great to hear a studio version of “Walking This Dumb”, but the live version presented on Love Remains is more than adequate quality. The little crackle in the live bass just adds to the allure. This is certainly one of Krell’s more dance-heavy songs, riding on a distorted chorus that sounds more Girls Aloud than Burial. The intensity of the following song, “Date of Birth”, brings us back to an intenser Krell though. His panting during the progression of string-like synths flows into a distant echoed croon, the song fading out as it progresses. Like most of Krell’s songs, it would fit perfectly as a soundtrack to a dream. Whether the dream is a haunting nightmare, sex-charged romp, or adventure on a night bus is up to you.

RIYL: Burial, Washed Out, Neon Indian, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Gauntlet Hair, Memoryhouse, Toro y Moi, Wild Nothing, Active Child, Best Coast, Beach Fossils, Pure Ecstasy, Big Spider’s Back, Cults, Tanlines, DOM, Memory Cassette, Kisses, Eternal Summers, Golden Ages, Nite Jewel

Official Site

MySpace

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