CD OF THE MONTH

Robert Francis - One by One
Mixed and mastered by Martin Pradler
Produced by Robert Francis

The opening lines of One by One set the tone for the debut: “I awoke in the nighttime / But you awoke first / You got up and got out / From a love that had been cursed” (“Mama Don’t Come”). It’s the kind of record that ought to come disclaimed for the newly brokenhearted.

Francis’ tone has a pillowed edge, which undercuts the gentle ebb from the backing score. His voice converses when it should, consoling from the shadows, and his songs are well-crafted embers that burn with the kind of cadence that glows with authenticity. The support comes in, at times, heavy with texture and complexity, a bounty of piano, lap steel and acoustic guitars, drums on reserve and a deep, rumbling bass. These instruments would lie emotionless without the soul of Francis’ cigarette-filtered vocals and lyrics saddled with pathos.

Francis is keen on removing the narrative structure most songwriters employ — a tact that breathes realism into his somber but irresistible songs. One example of his first-person approach is the song “Love For Me,” where, over a labyrinth of lap steel guitar melody and choked piano chords he sings, “I am a fool for loving you / How your hands feel around my neck / Our love was a sacrament ... and that’s the way that love turned out for me.” Another beautiful twist of the knife is how Francis sings from the grave, harboring uplifting lyrics by singing in past tense, a subtle reminder of the way that things used to be, but aren’t any more.

Like a record left to burn in the balmy sun of Los Angeles, where the infertile desert kisses the bloated suburbs, Francis’ debut is shiny enough to be mainstream, but bleak enough to want to hide in the bedroom. (Aeronaut Records)

www.myspace.com/robertfrancis

-Christopher Petro

Cryptacize - Dig That Treasure
Mastered by John Golden
Produced by Cryptacize
Vocals recorded at New, Improved Recording in Oakland, CA

Cryptacize allegedly formed soon after Nedelle Torrisi (former Kill Rock Stars artist) and Chris Cohen (ex-Deerhoof, currently of The Curtains) watched a YouTube clip of percussionist Michael Carreira playing a mean cowbell. If their strange internet bonds were any indication, Cryptacize’s debut would be full of whirs and clicks — a hectic army of digital insects. Instead, the clockwork minimalism found on the scant 31 minutes of Dig That Treasure is that of potent chamber music.

The spacey folk album opener “Stop Watch” is certainly draped in plenty of instruments, including clanging bells, electric guitar drones, pastoral autoharp, piano, and of course some cowbell. Treasure‘s quietness stems from the way the stilted instruments are played; they hang over songs like a deep and trenchant fog.
Cohen and Torrisi’s guitars serve as the diffracted light burning off the album’s minimal chilliness in “No Coins.” Elsewhere we hear noise pop (“How Did the Actor Laugh?” and “Heaven Is Human”). “Say You Will” has girl group charm that floats over a motoring washboard percussion and wind-up autoharp. Torrisi shares main vocals with Cohen and seems to take charge with her winsome diction. Cohen’s stop-and-go approach to music isn’t going anywhere soon, but he’s reined it in considerably here. And despite being remarkably delicate, Treasure has plenty of room for crashing waves of guitar (“We’ll Never Dream Again”). Celestial back porch harmonica folkers like “Dig That Treasure” further balance everything out.

On this album, Cohen continues to create a unique sonic landscape by playing a card straight out of his Deerhoof days: one must be willing to be happy with a shilling of silence before dumping out a treasure chest full of noise. (Asthmatic Kitty)

www.myspace.com/cryptacize

-Kyle Lemmon

Please Quiet Ourselves - Please Quiet Ourselves
Recorded and mixed by Evan Hart at Psychedelic Hearts Studio - Davis, CA
Mastered by Eric Broyhill at Monster Lab Audio in Sacramento, CA

It can sometimes take years of playing together before a band truly finds its own distinctive sound. Some never do. So it is undeniably impressive that Please Quiet Ourselves, comprised of seven or so Berkeley high school students, already display signs of such an accomplishment. The band’s self-titled debut EP showcases a progressive blend of indie rock — at times loud and idiosyncratic and others slow and introspective — that reflects the highs and lows of teenagerdom in earnest but ultimately reveals a talent and understanding reaching beyond their short-lived years.

All of this is established in opener “Color Chart,” which is not only one of the best tracks on the album, but one that gets at the heart of Please Quiet Ourselves’ allure.

Slow, sweeping acoustic guitar chords fall into clumsy off-key vocals, and somehow it just clicks. Perhaps it is the effect of their youth, but their lyrics betray a sincerity that is nothing short of endearing and captivating: “You are the outlaw in my mind / You are the chilling cowboy times / But we have the same friends / I took a ruler and measured how high / I judged that it was half my size / But we are the same things,” sung out in unison on the punky “I Don’t Care.”

Guitarist/vocalist Jojo Brandel, drummer Eli Lyons, guitarists Haran Stern, Adam Becker and Max Burstein, violinist Simeon Farwell-Miller, bassist Maddie Tien, and vocalist Bryce Enright move through various sounds ranging from slow acoustic strumming and hand drumming to progressive riffs, and even throw in some xylophone and melodica at times. But overall, their songs manage to maintain the same raw, unadulterated quality. (Mushpot Records)

www.pleasequietourselves.com

-Nicole Sheikh

Marvelous Toy - The Disappearing Heart
Produced by Jordan Hudock
Recorded and engineered by Michael J. Baum in Long Beach, CA
Mixed by Michael J. Baum, Jordan Hudock and Franck Fiser (except tracks 1 and 7 recorded and mixed by Jordan Hudock in Los Angeles, CA)
Mastered by Leslie Chew

On this debut EP, The Disappearing Heart, Marvelous Toy achieves the enviable balance of staying closely in touch with the zeitgeist while still sounding excitingly original. Based in Los Angeles, the four-piece band’s style is highlighted by some hallmarks of the city’s indie music scene (emo-inflected male vocals, ripe with vulnerability; male-female harmonies; a head-spinning variety of influences combined pioneeringly), but carves out a unique niche in that edifice by cross-pollinating folk pop with electronica.

The self-released EP features a handful of fine-tuned compositions. Lovingly produced, these six songs have been polished until they sparkle like jewels, with lots of little artistic touches throughout. The melodies are charming, and some call to mind the music of past eras filtered through a modern sensibility: “Let You Go” is so sweetly romantic it would feel perfectly right on a harpsichord. Its opening piano run flows like water (and a hidden seventh track offers a reprise that’s just as pretty). Frontman Jordan Hudock’s resounding voice is electronically processed throughout the album and the effect makes him sound like he’s broadcasting from a far distance, or another time.

Coupling acoustic instruments with synthesizers, the tracks also embrace unexpected instrumentation up to and including glockenspiel, around which there currently seems to be some kind of miniature alt-music revival. A spare start and the later entrance of a more orchestrated sound creates a characteristic in the songs’ arrangements whose recurrence is an effective means of cohering the collection. The one track that departs from the general tone, “That’s Not the Reason,” is faster and more danceable, but even it features a very musical vocal line, with ranges of notes like nets cast wide. With well-written songs and a painstakingly crafted sound, this new Toy is sure to provide a lot of happiness. (i feel m.t. records)

www.myspace.com/marveloustoy

-Susan Brooks

Lyrics Born - Everywhere At Once
Produced by Lyrics Born

After 15 years in the hip-hop game, Lyrics Born has yet to hit a creative ceiling. The gravelly-voiced vocalist/producer remains inventive with ANTI- debut Everywhere At Once, his second solo studio album since 2003’s critically acclaimed Later That Day.

Everywhere At Once is indeed all over the place, a blend of hip-hop, funk, dance, go-go, R&B and dancehall held together by the eclectic emcee’s production skills and vocal animation. While songs like “Hott 2 Deff,” “Top Shelf” and “I Like It, I Love It” stand out as guaranteed club hits, the album is also his most personal.

The half-Japanese American tackles identity issues on “Is It The Skin I’m In?” over a laidback groove. “Whispers” finds him coping with the loss of a close friend, while “Cakewalk” recalls the struggles of his career before he professes, “We all take our loss but I don’t accept failure.”

It’s this unbending confidence that has made Lyrics Born one of the biggest names in indie hip-hop. A co-founder of Quannum Projects (DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lateef the Truthspeaker, Lifesavas) and member of Latyrx, he’s built a rep for his stellar live performance and gained international and crossover success while sticking to his guns.

L.B.’s ability to cross boundaries makes him a perfect fit for ANTI-, a subdivision of Epitaph Records whose diverse roster includes Tom Waits, Bettye LaVette and Michael Franti. Everywhere At Once features guest work from his wife and longtime collaborator Joyo Velarde, along with Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na, Crown City Rockers’ Kat Ouano, R&B singer Baby James, and producers RJD2, Jake One and Amp Live. As a bonus, the album includes a remix of “Let Me In, Let Me Out,” Lyric Born’s collaboration with guitarist Tommy Guerrero.

The compelling energy of Everywhere At Once is progressive and accessible, sure to have both mainstream audiences and indie rap elitists shaking their booties to its funky stylings. (ANTI-)

www.lyricsborn.com

-Zoneil Maharaj

The Harpeth Trace - On Disappearing
Produced by The Harpeth Trace and Raymond Richards
Mixed by Raymond Richards

Mastered by John Golden

Named after singer Josh Kasselman’s past family home on Harpeth Trace Drive in Nashville, this L.A. trio has a great reverence for the past. Their vintage pop has both a melancholy and dreamy feel that can change from optimism to despair all within the same song and, ultimately, transcend time.

Co-produced and engineered by Raymond Richards at his Red Rockets Glare studio in Rancho Park, On Disappearing is a 35-minute collection of wistful yet haunting music led by Kasselman’s high-pitched, ethereal vocals and storytelling lyrics. With influences like The Zombies, Galaxie 500 and The Clientele, The Harpeth Trace has created its own sound that appears to be mellow but forces its listeners to engage.

On the opening track “Summer, Two Weeks,” Kasselman sets the tone for the rest of the songs, creating a Twilight Zone effect that borders on eerie. Singing “We can travel around any way that we please / I travel by train on both of our knees / We are everything,” he welcomes listeners on the band’s psychedelic, dream-pop journey. The next track, “Georgia May,” has a more twangy feel, dominated by a variety of sounds and instrumentation. While this song is meant to tell a story, Kasselman’s languid vocals make the lyrics less audible and the story more mysterious.

“Locked Out and Wandering” and “Dead Eyes” prove to be some of the strongest tracks on the album for their powerful imagery and beauty, despite the latter’s rather morose lyrics and fragile protagonist. Another standout is “The Numbers in Your Hair,” which is more upbeat and reminiscent of The Kinks, and allows Rob Poynter’s drums to take the spotlight for a moment.

On Disappearing is an impressive recording that lures listeners in from the start and keeps them coming back for more; as soon as the record ends, its hard not to want to take The Harpeth Trace journey again and again. (Red Rockets Glare Records)

www.theharpethtrace.com

-Jackie Miehls

Facts About Funerals - Love Songs & Funeral Homes
Recorded by Dave Hills and Dan Hulme at APE Studios in Little Neston, UK
Mixed by Tim Mooney at Closer Recording in San Francisco, CA

“A rainy, windy October night, locked in a ‘60s convertible on a bluff somewhere, with the heater on, Etta James crackling out the AM radio, kissing someone who makes you wonder if you’ll love them forever...” This is the way Seattle-based Facts About Funerals describes its aura, and the band’s self-assessment is right on the mark. The slightly-retro alt-country sound that is at once lushly melodic and humming with lo-fi buzz is the backbone of Facts About Funerals’ new album, Love Songs & Funeral Homes.

Sweet and a little sad, Love Songs achieves exactly what it sets out to accomplish. Beginning with the bittersweet nostalgia of “Runaway With Me” (“Your sweet kisses still taste delicious to me”), which fades out on haunting panpipes, the album begins to show a heartland twinge in “Lousy Kisser,” with its bright, woozy pedal steel and rhetorical paradoxes (“She was a lousy kisser / So why, oh why do I still miss her?”). Then comes a shift from all this starry-eyed pensiveness to a devil-may-care country-western raucousness with “Black Whiskey” (the dive-bar boisterousness and rambunctious choral bridge recall Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places”). The beautiful, keening pedal steel intro to “A Different Man” gives way to a subdued drum-machine beat topped with growling, breathy vocals and punctuated by atonal guitar chirps and shrill whines. High, sweet and acoustic, “The Wedding Song” slips into the album’s most dreamlike places with its chiming piano and slow fade into a playground of white noise and fuzzed-up crooning, a perfect ending to an album built on dreaminess and nostalgia.

The best thing about Love Songs & Funeral Homes is that it is fully aware of its greatest assets — bittersweet melancholia, inspiring melodies, and an uncanny ability to tug at the heartstrings. This album is fully-fledged and ready for glorious flight. (Self-released)

www.myspace.com/factsaboutfunerals

-Caitlin Berka

The Hectors - Sometimes They Collide
Engineered by Mark Chalecki

Recorded by Jim Saunders
Mixed by Rick Parker at The Sandbox
Mastered by Mark Chalecki at Capitol Mastering
Produced by Rick Parker

It’s the kind of EP that does what an EP should: spark intrigue for a band’s future recordings. L.A.’s The Hectors are an unusually well-assembled band of musicians, bringing clearly different ideas to the songwriting effort. Their sound is saddled with the pop and anthemic prowess of grrrl rock and the catchiness of Pavement, while it portions slightly sinister flavors like the thrust and mud of the grunge era and the rhythm of post-punk. An appropriately regal indie rock team supports this ambitious and refreshingly inspired debut: producer Rick Parker (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Brian Jonestown Massacre) and engineer Mark Chalecki (Silversun Pickups, Earlimart).

Throughout Sometimes They Collide, guitars strobe like brilliant pulses of emotion and a bass throbs thickly within the unrelenting energy from the drums (all recorded in an apartment — hello noise violation). The five-song EP moves quickly and singer/guitarist Corinne Dinner’s vocals stand up alongside frontwoman monoliths like an early Liz Phair, circa Whip-Smart. Dinner has a gritty, infectious vigor that’s assertive and poised with a breathy, amber tone.

The EP surprisingly eludes romance and speaks on the conventions of being a dreamer and searching for the meaning behind life’s many voids. Dinner’s lyrics yearn and testify, touching on the subjects we want to hear when we’re done fussing with love.

The guitar noodling shouldn’t fit as well as it does, winding in very achy Interpol-like doldrums that are then pinned into four-minute power pop verse/chorus structures. It’s simply another item on a list of things that seem like they would — dare one say — collide: Dinner’s youthful glowing vocals, unexpected mid-song tempo bipolarizing, hugely aggressive guitar mood swings that produce a wall-of-sound treatment in the way of My Bloody Valentine.

Here, drawing from the right sources, the foursome are a symbol for competence meets catchiness meets inspiration. It’s an aptly titled debut: Sometimes They Collide — and make a huge impact. (Tarantism Records)

www.thehectors.com

-Christopher Petro

Kasey Anderson - The Reckoning
Produced by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel
Engineered by Tim Hatfield
Recorded and mixed at Cowboy Technical Services in Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Scott Hull at Scott Hull Mastering in New York, NY

Great music is inspiring. Aside from selling a lot of records, the artists who truly leave a legacy inspire those who come after them. Kasey Anderson’s quaint country charm and honest songwriting gives one the feeling this Portland-based artist may be doing more than selling a lot of records.

The Reckoning, produced by Eric Ambel, starts on a very dark note with a distorted electric guitar intro that one would expect to hear at a GWAR concert rather than on a country album. But don’t be fooled: Anderson proceeds on a roller coaster ride full of love, despair, whiskey and just plain old gettin’ by. In the track “Red Shadows,” Anderson beautifully chronicles the plight of two men struggling to survive. He describes loss in the lyrics, “I held his hand ‘til he stopped breathin’ / Whispered grace into his ear / Out there in desolation / You need a different kind of prayer.”

Drawing from classic American songwriters such as Dylan and Springsteen, Kasey Anderson has done for Americana what Michael Bublé has done for classic jazz standards. His raspy voice and perfect pitch combines both talent and style, allowing the listener to feel the lyrics, not just hear them. This genuine delivery along with his carefully-crafted songwriting is what makes Anderson authentically special and sets him on the path of becoming one of those extraordinary brands of songwriters that stop and touch the hearts of all Americans and even rouse some to pick up the guitar. (Terra Soul Music)

www.kaseyanderson.com

-Dave Boodakian

Siberian - With Me
Recorded and mixed by Martin Feveyear at Jupiter Studios in Seattle, WA
Produced by Martin Feveyear and Siberian

Mastered by Ed Brooks at RFI

Seattle’s Siberian garnered a local following from their debut EP without officially releasing it. Word of mouth spread and live shows and regional radio play built the band an audience. With Me, Siberian’s full-length debut, capitalizes on their strengths to deliver 11 tracks to those waiting listeners.

Basically a pop band, Siberian has echoes of Coldplay and U2 shimmering through its sound, in which guitar, bass and drums build the foundation for founding member Finn Parnell’s vocals. A persistent quality of Siberian’s songwriting is a kind of imaginative stream-of-consciousness wordplay where one phrase flows into another. The immediate effect within a line or verse is sometimes nonsensical, but it unfolds over the course of each song into significance, completing the tracks almost like rounds. “Indoor Eyes” includes the image of a “crystal kid,” which sounds like a character in a children’s book, and much of the band’s imagery flows like musings from the unconscious mind.

The subject matter of the lyrics is also surprisingly mature for such a young band, sometimes bordering on outright bitterness. “Tiny Ships Brave Tiny Seas” seems to chronicle the sadness of empty sensual indulgence, and “Wolf and Crane” contains traces of the youthful narcissism that can’t yet see the worth in later stages of life. “Georg Bendemann” is an autistic rant, “Islands Forever” depicts a suicide pact, and “O Orien” uses the dismembered king from Egyptian mythology as a metaphor for emotional unavailability.

Siberia is a good metaphor for distance and chill, and past the initial radio-friendly accessibility of their sound, Siberian tackles some edgy topics. This album makes the listener work a little to figure it out. So if anyone is up for a challenge, Siberian might be just the band. (Sonic Boom Recordings)

www.siberianmusic.com

-Susan Brooks

Norman - Norman
Produced by Kyle Walters-Sheaffer and Norman
Recorded at Pantherfact Records in Portland, OR
Mixed by Kyle Walters-Sheaffer at Studio Neal in Portland, OR
Mastered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at SuperDigital in Portland, OR

Norman is loath to refer to itself as a “band,” preferring instead the term “collaboration.” Indeed, the gaggle of musicians based in Oregon’s Willamette Valley seems bent on the type of experimentation and stylistic play that lends itself to such a descriptor. Initially conceived by singer Eric Nordby as a solo act in 2005, Norman (with its ever-evolving roster) recently released its self-titled debut.

Cheerful, folksy and deceptively earnest, the album’s sound most readily recalls fellow Oregonians The Decemberists, with the subdued and often surreal feeling of Yo La Tengo. Norman manages to be both cute and complicated, both lightly funny and darkly emotive, and it is this pull of opposites that makes it such a unique and generally successful album.

Norman opens almost cautiously, with the inoffensive and hopeful “Blue & Black” and “Like a Tree” (whose lyrics actually include “da da da, da da da”). But the album begins to hit its stride with the syncopated Allman-esque riffs in “Devil’s Hand.”

The pattering “Pages of Your Heart” is a foray into genre play; the plaintive harmonica, gently-strummed guitar and lap steel drop away to reveal a forceful, anthemic coda laden with strong chords. The short and sweet “Seasons” sounds like a country barn dance, complete with rhythmic clapping and ambient sounds of whoops, hollers and clinking beer steins. “Fishing Song” is the most musically put-together song on the album but still manages to be zany with its narrative structure and somewhat tongue-in-cheek lyrics (“This is a fishing song / I hope you like to sing along / Because it’s that type of song”). The final track, “Home,” is a meditation on loneliness with some nice homophonic, Crosby Stills Nash and Young-like vocal harmonies and a bluesy instrumental stretch.

In short, Norman is a fun and enjoyable album, but one that requires thought and careful listening to pick up on the musical intricacies that can sometimes be obscured by its sheer eclectic kookiness. (Self-released)

www.myspace.com/normansongs

-Caitlin Berka

Yesan Damen - Chronos/Kairos
Produced, engineered and mixed by Daniel Kwak and Zak Dewey
Mastered by Zak Dewey

Yesan Damen is a Seattle indie-pop group consisting of songwriter Daniel Kwak on vocals, guitar and keyboard, backed by Arick Gouwerok on bass and Michael Lerner on drums, and assisted by cast of roughly a dozen guest musicians on this, their second album. Guest vocalists Jen Wood and Jane Lee play Neko Case to Kwak’s Carl Newman, or Beth Arzy to his Robert Wratten ... or Jen Wood to his Ben Gibbard.

Chronos/Kairos is inflected with the kinds of cute, indulgent garnishes that are often the hallmark of the self-recorded project: the sound of a fast-forwarding cassette as a song intro, chintzy pre-programmed keyboard beats and twiddling keyboard outros. “Monuments to Ambition” alternates lean verses instrumentally reminiscent of Spoon with lush choruses. Trumpet and strings give “Osaka” a chamber pop feel, while flute and banjo give the feathery, twee “Consequence” a pastoral twist. “Outer Space” is an up-tempo rocker with a great guitar sound that would be better louder in the mix, and a verse unfortunately saddled with a tortured rhyme scheme involving “famil-i-ar,” “occur” and “all a blur.” Kwak finally lets go with some passion in his otherwise reserved voice on the anthemic “American Riot.” His lyrics speak in generalities that pass through the ears and mind without leaving much of an impression, however heartfelt they may be and in spite of the occasional clever turn of phrase like “if only bad timing was a sport.”

Yesan Damen’s super-sincere, meticulously-crafted pop strives for the lush emotionality of Stars, the crystalline melancholia of Trembling Blue Stars and the earbud anthems of The Postal Service, but doesn’t quite rise to the level of its inspirations. Obviously made with much care, Chronos/Kairos seeks pop perfection more in precise attention to detail than in the more elusive and magical balance between craft and passion. (New Wine Records)

www.yesan-damen.com

-Mike Baehr

Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden - Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden
Recorded and mixed by Ryan Hadlock and Lucas Carlyle at Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, WA
Mastered by Ed Brooks at RFI in Seattle, WA
Produced by Ryan Hadlock

Undeniably, Kate Tucker’s lyrical delivery makes up most of her appeal. Her voice is to female folk as Norah Jones’ is to female jazz; dusty tones and simple poetry. With her vapor-like vocals, Tucker can dice a mood out of the coldest room, but like a tragic circle, her catchy, breathy and blue-toned songs taunt the listener with repetition.

Indeed, her songs are ripe, sparkling with glittering acoustic/electric licks while showcasing a polished, controlled vocal tone — but there’s no release. Tucker, while great at near-monotone fluttering, fails to plateau or strike the emotional climax her lyrics pine for.

All things considered, Tucker’s debut makes for great lazy Sunday morning music, which may be the result of producer Ryan Hadlock (Blonde Redhead, The Gossip) and his obsession with piling a little group of instruments into a textured heap with endless depth. Here, The Sons of Sweden’s Nic Danielson has focused on dotting Tucker’s landscape with strings, tiptoeing piano melodies and big, paradoxical crescendos that clash with her unchanging pitch. Bass, guitars and thickly-stacked drums do add a twist of modern musing, but Tucker’s tone is nostalgic and seems more at home with Cat Power minimalism.

Her lyrics twine with the emotional pulls of the supporting instruments, and similar to queen of coffeehouse folk Beth Orton’s, they are poignant allegories for love and loss. In the beautiful ballad “The Way You Went,” Tucker somberly sings, “We were falling slowly out of time / Now the day is old and the day will end / And we’ll dim the lights to make believe / That we’re still alive that we still are every bit as free.”

Though a notable debut, Tucker’s trickling emotion ultimately prevents any of her songs from soaring above the rest, giving the listener a near gem with only a handful of sparkles. (Red Valise Recordings)

www.katetuckerandthesonsofsweden.com

-Christopher Petro

Form and Fate - Recirc
Recorded and mixed by Form and Fate with Brian Bickerton, Ben Browning and Kevin McAuliffe
Mastered by Adam Myatt at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, CA

Post-rock bands never let a lack of words hinder a sonic journey of emotional catharsis. On the EP Recirc, San Francisco’s Form and Fate, a primarily instrumental quintet, guides listeners through its bleakest moments with five melancholy songs that reach for the core.

Their epic compositions build from restrained to bursting and make imminent comparisons to stars of the style like Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, with differences that are hard to pinpoint. But the band does right by the genre. With three guitarists to buoy the bass and drums, Form and Fate employs multiple melodic layers to drive songs to climax.

“Nobody ever told me the airlock would unlock” a faraway voice murmurs on opener “Airlock,” one of two tracks with vocals. The song settles into a dreamy groove before feedback sets the stage for a thundering unravel. The meditative repetition of the funereal “He Grows” is a controlled exercise in subtlety that bleeds into the somber reflection of “Magnets in My Bones.” “Masking,” the unmistakable standout of the album, pairs comforting guitar riffs with distant vocals seemingly recorded in an era gone by. With a heavy and soul-elevating pinnacle coupled with the revelation “sunsets can only be admired through a rusty, wired fence,” the band affirms that sadness has its place and makes happiness feel even better. Form and Fate ostensibly concludes the trip underwater on “No Really, You Should Be Stopping” with a soothing tremolo picking pattern that conjures a peaceful glide through a pure, tropical sea.

Strong musicianship and well-crafted emotive outbursts makes Recirc an enjoyable and qualified shepherd for these troubled times. (500 Records/ Three Ring Records)

www.myspace.com/formandfate

-Julia Cooper

Clutchy Hopkins - Walking Backwards
No production information available

Who the hell is this Clutchy Hopkins character and where does he come from? Is he the son of a legendary Motown producer who’s traveled the globe to bone up on world music, or some oddball vagabond bunking out in a cave deep in the Mojave Desert? According to hearsay, no one knows for sure. Some speculate MF Doom (whose voice has surfaced on a few of Hopkins’ tracks in the past) or DJ Shadow or even one of the Beastie Boys, yet nobody has been able to successfully sniff out the conspiracy theory of the elusive beat conductor. One thing that’s for certain, however, is the impact Hopkins has had on the hip-hop world — his name has generated quite a buzz on internet chat forums abroad since The Misled Children record label issued The Life of Clutchy Hopkins in 2006.

Hopkins’ new endeavor on Ubiquity Records, Walking Backwards, continues to snafu the puzzle surrounding the grizzly-bearded musician. Similar in execution and spirit to the Special Herbs compilations issued by Doom, the record collects 12 mostly instrumental cuts compacting old school hip-hop, early ‘70s jazz fusion and Southern-fried psych-soul into one prized package. Playing heavily off its album title, Hopkins brings a number of passé ingredients to the table and revitalizes the formula with a fresh, clean-cut update.

“Sound of the Ghost” opens the album on a chilled note with involved strings, subtle keys and spare percussion centered on a hip-hop breakbeat. The track’s gripping melodies and careful arrangements are bliss, and its head-bobber of a follow-up, “Song for Wolfie,” is just as spine-tingling. During “Love of a Woman,” labelmate Darondo grabs the mic and does his best Al Green for the song’s lounge-jazzy tone. It’s a sexy listen, and demands a new inquest: Why is Clutchy so damn good? (Ubiquity Records)

www.whoisclutchyhopkins.com

-Chris Sabbath

The Imprints - Marvelous Escape
Produced by The Imprints
Recorded by Rob Stroup at 8 Ball Studio
Mixed by Matt Shultz at 8 Ball Studio
Mastered by Matt Shultz at SuperDigital

When just about every song in existence grapples with love’s constant burden, it’s refreshing to hear a fresh perspective on the matter. The Imprints, a five-piece pop rock band from Portland, successfully accomplish this on Marvelous Escape, the follow-up to their well-received 2005 debut Sounds of the Aftermath. With lush textures and a more distinguished tone, Marvelous Escape improves on the already excellent Sounds with solid songwriting and clever, metaphor-laden lyrics utilized to uniquely describe everyday commonalities.

Often compared to bands like Wilco, The Imprints exude a variety of influences from alt-country to robustly saturated Brit rock. Songs like “Long Chapter One” display the band’s knack for illustrative lyrics: “I could sit and stare at you for days / Just thinking about the next page.” One of the many offbeat topics covered on the album, the hypocrisy of high society is examined in “Summer Homes” as frontman Rob Stroup sings, “Dame with a cocktail dressed to the nines / Feels altruistic raising charity dimes.” “Divine,” the most spacious track of all, incorporates willowy piano fills floating over a foundation of fingerpicked acoustic guitar, mirroring the lyrics’ image of a mid-flight bittersweet homage to a beloved Indiana town.

The Imprints clearly click as a collaborative effort, creating a sweeping landscape of organic harmony where every sound exhibits a distinct voice of its own. An explosion of breathless production, Marvelous Escape succeeds with upbeat appeal even during its most emotive moments. And in its conclusion, when one discovers love hidden slyly within (whether posed as book or plane), there is simple satisfaction in knowing it existed in the first place. (8 Ball Records)

www.theimprints.com

-Keane Li

Codpiece - Epic Code
Recorded and mixed by Anthony Arvisu and Jeff Lewis at The Compound in Signal Hill, CA
Mastered by Kevin Bartley at Capitol Mastering in Hollywood, CA

Brian LePien, Casey Lombardo, and Eric Villicana were just a bunch of Long Beach State alums when they got together to form the band Codpiece, a Southern California act that, until now, only played live sets. Recorded in the summer of 2006, Epic Code — an anagram of “codpiece”— is their debut EP.

Each of the five songs on Epic Code strikes a different musical tone, although when heard together, the flow seems seamless and logical, almost like a buffet of punk styles. “I Know” sounds like it’s being played in a vast, empty warehouse, evoking a Velvet Underground echoing quality. “Whenever I’m With You” is radiant with feedback and fuzzy monophonic vocals, complementing LePien’s fast, consistent drumbeat. “They’ll Dine On Your Remains” features swoopy, slurring, screamed staccato vocals evocative of The Ramones or a less vibrato-heavy Dead Kennedys, and a dominant, driving guitar. The slightly surreal “Your Hair Don’t Care” (“The sea has no bottom / You’re problems, you got ‘em / The good times forgotten / And your hair don’t care”) achieves a swirling and psychedelic yet toothy and meaty post-punk sound, almost reminiscent of Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. “No, We’ll Never Know” is infused with a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes retro/punk/ballad feel and an intentionally repetitive, inane, tinkling little piano solo.

It’s clear that Codpiece has not yet found its own voice; the wide array of musical influences on display in Epic Code is a testament to the band’s tinkering-with-the-kitchen-sink approach. Still, it’s a worthy first effort and a good EP — a musical hors d’oeuvre that whets the palate and readies it for something more. (Loma Records)

www.codpiecemusic.com

-Caitlin Berka

Brandon Mayer & the Hidden Powers - Nothing Without Love
Produced by David Rosa
Engineered and mixed by David Rosa and Alec Dixon

Though he struggles with heartbreak just like the rest of us, Brandon Mayer has found an original voice for the timeless topic of love on his album Nothing Without Love. Every pessimistic outlook is beautifully poetic and always leads to an uplifting conclusion and musical brilliance.

This often solo acoustic performer finds backing with The Hidden Powers, who project Mayer into a wider pop sound without loosing the intimacy of his songs. Café Rosa Production’s David Rosa is the unsung mastermind behind the album’s engineering, adding a hint of electronic echo and effect in just the right places to highlight certain phrases in Mayer’s lyrics like a big bold marker, and give unconventional layers to the singer/songwriter template.

On “Been Through it Before,” Mayer allows his accordion to tweak the melody and strings to help convey the romanticism of falling in love again. He also experiments with short songs like “Gone Forever” and “Sorcerer,” almost like a passing thought or instance. “My Name is Bam Bam” is a 1:40 minute dive into electronic dance with Mayer’s falsetto spinning throughout.

Towards the middle of the album, “Heart of Hearts” and “When We Walk Back Home” slow down the pace, giving Mayer the ability to showcase a more stripped-down style. Then “Wrong Kind Of World” subtly allows the bands’ sound to creep back in. With added clapping and background vocals, Mayer sums up the theme of his album as he proclaims, “Love’s the fastest way to frustration / Love’s the fastest way to salvation.” It is this double-sided view on the most painful yet exquisite human feeling that gives Mayer so much depth. (Pelvic Records)

www.brandonmayer.com

-Megan Clinard

Ex-Boyfriends - In With
Recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by Aaron Hellam at Castle Ultimate Studios in Oakland, CA
Produced by Aaron Hellam and Ex-Boyfriends

Staying true to their successful power-pop attack, San Francisco’s Ex-Boyfriends have returned with In With, a punch-in-the-ears journey of a sophomore album. Starting off on an up-tempo note, the record demands attention from its listener, and once in command, it reveals plenty of peaks and valleys to keep a good balance in the soundscape.

“Situation” garners attention for its guitar hooks and softly-echoed vocals. What begins with a slightly alt-punk sounding guitar pulse gives way to supporting bass. It’s slightly Cure-ish, slightly Smiths-ish, but so much more optimistic musically - even if the actual lyrics are dissonant with lines like, “Evidence has shown / We’ve seen this all before / Your cover’s been blown / And we expected so much more ... It’s over / A forgotten situation.”

Halfway through comes “Breathe Without Breaking,” a break-up anthem for the relationships that have run long past their expiration dates. The vocals are catchy, the guitars stay energetic, and the chorus is perfect in balancing the overall sound. Again very reminiscent of The Smiths, especially in the chorus where “The envy of / The boys and the girls / You’re the saddest boy / oh in the world “ lies nestled between verses. Yet rather than trying to be Morrissey, they borrow his style and infuse it with some Ex-Boyfriends spunk, using such solid building blocks for the foundation of their own sound.

The final track on In With is perfectly placed; it’s slow, relaxing and just as its title suggests, says “Goodnight.” The repetitious guitar chords put the listener into a lullabyed trance as lamenting, hopeful vocals float through a melody full of emotion: “Everything will always work out / Goodnight / Will they see the dreams that we hide / Goodnight / Funny how I’m always right.” (Absolutely Kosher Records)

www.myspace.com/exboyfriends

-Krystal Iaeger

Adam Smith and Your Invisible Hands - Strangers
Produced by Adam Smith and Terry Mattson
Engineered by Terry Mattson
Mixed by Don Gunn and Terry Mattson
Mastered by Ed Brooks at RFI

Many bands that are known for innovation and experimentation call Seattle home. Amongst this musical community are Adam Smith and Your Invisible Hands, whose debut album Strangers was digitally released on September 11 of last year, with the physical release date forthcoming.

This forward-thinking way of releasing the album, however, is really the only inventive thing that Strangers has going for it. It is a disappointing homage to mid ‘90s arena rock and pop punk, dominated by Adam Smith’s nasally vocals and his band’s uninspired rehash of an overdone era. The songwriting attempts little, and while the production is impeccable, the music does nothing to warrant the glossy treatment it receives.

A perfect example of this can be found in the song “Don’t Say Uncle,” which features Smith harmonizing with himself the inane chorus of “Don’t say uncle until it hurts.” The ballad - which sticks like glue to the formula developed by arena rock bands like Creed - also features an easy-listening bass line and subtle acoustic guitar touches.

The best song on the album is the 1:40 minute opening track “Like a Flood,” in which Smith’s vocals are mercifully masked by distortion and reverb as he repeats the lines, “Do I know you? It’s like a flood,” until the song fades out with repetitive acoustic guitar. “Fits” also features an interesting build as the band layers guitar, organ, drums and bass to create a modicum of internal tension. The rest of the band creates a wall of sound that culminates in any echoey guitar solo and Smith’s lamenting that having been left is “giving [him] fits” before the song abruptly stops.

Ultimately this is the case of a songwriter trying to do too much with weak material and in doing so, ends up recycling known songs and relying on cliché. So even though Smith stretches boundaries in the album’s production and distribution methods, there is musically very little here. (Blue State Records)

www.adamsmithandyourinvisiblehands.com

-Rob Bergquist