Country: USA
Genre(s): Avant Prog, Pop, Math Rock
Label: New Atlantis Records
Format: vinyl, digital
Release date: August 8, 2015
Tracklist:
- Reliquary 03:37
- Bone Turquoise 05:37
- Your Level Best 05:30
- Common Carrier 04:43
- Storm Guide 04:15
- The Plot 08:15
- Ousted 03:58
- Trappings 07:52
- Birds of Passage 07:15
Chuck Stern (Time of Orchids) - vocals
Tim Byrnes (Kayo Dot) - synth
Toby Driver (Kayo Dot) - guitar
Keith Abrams (Kayo Dot) - drums
Description/Reviews:
...the album's only real outburst—a plangent passage of sustained feedback, roiling drums, and ringing church bells—arrives just before the end of "Birds of Passage", the long record's serpentine closer. Instead, for much of these nine tracks, the quartet twists meticulously, almost seductively through pop-rock songs refracted at disorienting angles. At some points, what Stern terms his "alien pop" band even feels wistful—surprising given the group's pedigree, sure, but certainly not without reward.Read the full review by Grayson Haver Currin at pitchfork.com
Much of Stern's surprising restraint stems from the quartet's deliberate choices about dynamics and modulation. Rather than simply pivot between quiet and loud or fast and slow, this subtle group often does both at once, moving incrementally rather than aggressively. That's the most striking feature of opener "Reliquary", for instance, which goes from languid passages into tense interruptions and then back again. And "Ousted" deploys near-amoeboid motion, where every element, from the tempo to the tone, seems fluid enough to shift at any moment. No peak in volume or pace ever lasts too long. That approach allows for touches of post-rock and pop, math rock and metal inside songs where no one look overrides the others.
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