| CD REVIEW The Antlers |
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Band : The Antlers One of the good things that came out of the crisis in the music business, and the fact that most labels/ distributors reverted to a promotion of their releases through downloads, is that suddenly a lot of 'em contacted ConcreteWeb. One of 'em was V2, who have a catalog geared towards more “popular” music, which was previously unavailable to us. And let me tell you, that catalog holds several incredibly beautiful jems, including this Brooklyn, NY based Ethereal Pop act! Originally, The Antlers was a solo studio project started by singer/ songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Peter Silberman (currently his instrumentarium includes guitar, harmonica, harp, accordion, and keyboards), whom started the project soon after he'd moved to New York. In fact, he wrote the first albums [the self-released 2006 Uprooted and 2007's “In The Attic Of The Universe” (which was possibly preceded by the also 2007 EP Cold War), released through Fall Records in November of that year] on his own, and only then made the project a collaborative thing by recruiting Darby Cicci (keyboards, trumpet, bowed banjo) and Michael Lerner (drums). (I'm not sure where the 2008 EP New York Hospitals fits in) The 2009 album Hospice (first self-released in March, then re-issued officially through Frenchkiss Records in August) even had one Justin Stivers on the bass, but the band has since gone on as a trio, enlisting Timothy Mislock for bass and additional guitar duties for gigs and touring. During the year-and-a-half's touring for their official debut album, the three core members of the band bonded even more as friends and colleague musicians, finding a mutual interest in electronic music, the kind which Silberman refers to as “...music that keeps moving and is kind of entrancing and expansive at the same time...headphone music, music that keeps you going while you're driving for 20 hours...” (quote from the info sheet we got along with our download promo copy of the album). Evidently, this influence was going to seep into the music the guys were going to write and record together next. Deciding they didn't need an outsider engineer or producer to get the sound they wanted, the trio took a 5-year lease on a Brooklyn studio, and secluded themselves there for 5 months starting September 2010, working 8 to 12 hours a day to piece everything together, with the “...goal to draw upon those Post-Rock sounds while still employing classic songwriting structures, synthesizing ostensibly artificial qualities into an organic Pop template to evoke a full panoply of feeling...” (another quote from the same info sheet). The result is this beautiful 10-track (just over 41 minutes in length) album, songs off which (as well as from the Hospice album) you can listen to in the media section of the band's own website (http://.) antlersmusic.com [don't bother with the band's MySpace page, because at the band's own site you can also find a shit-load of live videos, as well as a link to see the video to the album's first single “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out” (one of the “harder” tracks on the album) in the news section]. Sweet meandering music, occasionally filled with dreamy falsetto-like lead and harmony vocals, many songs of which have some nice electronics underneath, making for a slight complexity in the overall catchy and melodic tunes. Great music to listen to in the wee hours on a hot summer's evening, while one is sitting on the porch with a cool drink near at hand. The kind of music one wants to add to one's year-lists, really! Oh, before I forget; The Antlers will be gracing several European Summer festivals with their presence, mainly in the UK, but they'll also play at Belgium's Pukkelpop on August 19. And anyone into a dreamy set of catchy ethereal Pop tunes might just come across me there! Although it'll be difficult to make me out from the most certainly mesmerized and hypnotized audience. 98/100 Tony. |
