Review: 28 Degrees Taurus - How Do You Like Your Love?

Label: self-released

Released: 2008

William Blake divided his poems into Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience to reflect his view of the world before and after that crucial point at which the ugliness of the world becomes apparent. However, Blake left out that gray area in between as experience opens doors (the doors of perception perhaps?), but hasn't yet jaded the eyes and mind and heart.

Capturing both the darkness (check out the harshness of "Crash & Burn") and naiveté of the journey into the unknown gives this whole album the hippie-trippy sense of 60s psychedelia. While songs like "Freeze, Die, Come Back to Life" keep one foot firmly in that 60s haze, How Do You Like Your Love? musically falls more into line with the noise pop of My Bloody Valentine as well as the haunting, ethereal vocals and ambient textures of Lush. Like the echo-drenched voice(s) of "Endless Sea," it is at once both an ambling and persistent advance into a world whose deepening chaos is both frightening and enticing.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Dead Leaf Echo - Pale Fire

Label: self-released

Released: 2008

Dead Leaf Echo offers up layers of heavy reverb, subtle, fluid rhythms and ambling, mopey vocals in the true shoegazing tradition. At times, they find interesting ways to get the vocals to work in concert with the rhythms and it's strikingly good. They don't get there consistently, but when they do, they really shine.

The fuzzy punch at the end of "Thought Talk" explodes out of the song's quiet, changing the energy without changing the song. Pale Fire's title track is reminiscent of U2's "Out of Control," only pushed to the extreme. "Reflex Motion" taps into the carefully constructed moods of late Joy Division.

Dead Leaf Echo ambles through echoy, fluid and darkly trippy songs that give a strong nod to 80s guitar and noise pop and occasionally find some of the same ambient ground that Radiohead did in their mid-90s prime (albeit by a somewhat different route). Pale Fire is an album focused on flow, not hooks, and its charms take time to sink through the density of the sound. Be patient though, because the mood that comes with the album is quite vivid in its best moments.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Thrushes - Sun Come Undone

Label: Birdnote Records (distributed by Morphius Records (US) / Cargo Records (Europe)

Released: March 13, 2007

Thrushes claim to venerate Phil Spector and to some extent that's clear, but their wall of sound is quite a bit different than his. While Spector focused on straightforward pop perfection, Thrushes takes an alternate route to the same destination.

From the opening track of Sun Come Undone, Thrushes unleash a sonic power that alternates from quiet and subtle to loud and abrasive, though always oddly beautiful. While they do have a certain Spector pop quality hidden deep, almost imperceptibly, under the covers, rearing it's head at times in girl-group drum beats or guitar melodies, their real influence is the noise pop of the early 90s from My Bloody Valentine to Lush. Many bands have tried their hand at this game, but what makes Thrushes special is the way they build their wall of sound. They don't just keep adding layers. Instead, they build three or four layers and then the first layer moves back on top and the cycle continues from soft sweetness to manic cacophony. This wall is at times easy to miss and at others impossible to ignore. Even their pace at which they work varies. They build up slow and patiently at times with unmistakable care in their writing. Other times, they just let loose, unleashing a wild beauty that won't be held back. What's particularly interesting is that no part, not guitar, bass, drums or vocals, seems to lead another. They operate independently as if they are pieces in a complex machine where it isn't clear how they operate in tandem, yet clearly they do. They wrap up the crazy beauty that is Sun Come Undone by pulling an influence that runs beneath the surface throughout a little more to the front. "The Hardest Part" would find as happy a home on the Velvet Underground and Nico as it does here.

It's a dissonant and vaguely unsettling beauty that Thrushes creates. Their formula seems simple: everybody does their own thing and somehow it works out. They have the almost unheard of perfect sense of themselves as a band and it has led to a record that will wash over you with waves of their own sonic ocean.

Rating: 8/10

They're playing their last show with drummer Matt Davis on Friday, September 7 at the Lo-Fi Social Club in Baltimore. Check 'em out if you can.

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