Akron/Family & Angels Of Light (Young God)
By Abel Folgar
Friday. Jan 13, 12:03 AM
Two creative forces making fresh American music.

Michael Gira's been quite busy since the end of Swans back in 1997, and his label has grown quite a bit too! This here split between his acoustic project (Angels Of Light) and the quad of bearded "rural Americans" transplanted in NYC is a fresh entry into the annals of American roots music, with solid musicianship and technical ability to dip into pleasing sounding forays of experimentation. The partnership is bound to yield even more outputs in the future!

Recorded live over a few sessions, the overall feel of the album is cohesive and fun: alt-country balladry meets Beatles-like pop via an acid bath of Midwest psychedelia with the purity of an honestly strummed guitar guiding the group. Very few effects are thrown in the mix and the range of instrumentation could come off as a whole bunch of Lomax recordings melted together in the sun, but manage to compliment each other.

The 12 tracks are arranged so that the Akron/Family half is the quad doing their thing and the Angels Of Light half is Gira fronting A/F. Gira's back half might be a little more straight up, but the album as a whole sounds evenly balanced. Solid, solid effort. "Moment," a cover of Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant," and "Future Myth" are easy standouts in this hour-long platter.
www.akronfamily.com
www.younggodrecords.com

Listen to a song from this album in our Radio section!

Click here to buy this album on iTunes!

Click here to download the iTunes jukebox application for Macintosh or Windows!

Abel Folgar

Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.