Band : Vetiver
Album title : The Errant Charm
Label : Sub Pop – Bella Union
Distributor : V2
Release date : 13/06/2011
Release : CD

Following his tenure with the Greensboro (North Carolina) based Indie Rock act The Raymond Brake (which released a couple of albums on the no longer existing label Simple Machines), singer-songwriter Andy Cabic packed some of his meager belongings, threw his acoustic guitar across his back, and moved to San Fransisco...where he soon founded the Folk/ Indie act Vetiver.

The band (currently composed of Otto Hauser, Sarah Verspirille, Daniel Hindman, and Bob Parins – sorry I don't know what exactly their functions are within the band...I dó suspect Versprille to be the band's keyboardist and occasional female backing singer though) released its self-titled 2004 debut album on the small DiCristinalabel, and did the same for the 2006 album To Find Me Gone, which was subsequently picked up by FatCat Records for wider distribution. For 2008's Thing Of The Past the band switched to the Gnomonsonglabel, but still had distribution from FatCat, and 2009's Tight Knit was the first album issued through Sub Pop. The band has toured extensively in support of their albums, opening for and collaborating with Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, and sharing the bill with Vashti Bunyan during her 2007 US tour. Since the band's 2nd album, Cabic has collaborated with producer Thom Monahan, not only to co-produce Vetiver's albums, but also to create remixes of other people's material under the monicker of Neighbors, working with Tussle, and co-producing other artists' recordings.

For The Errant Charm, Cabic felt like an experiment, arriving at Monahan's Los Angeles studio with little more than some loose ideas for songs. The best ideas were fleshed out, and then some of the songs were recorded by the duo. Eerie tracks, which have an acoustic guitar assisted by a great sounding Ambient electric guitar in overall rather calm and serene songs (the info I  found – because none was given with our promo download copy – speaks of the fact that the band having played a lot of Duritti Column in their tour van). The other ideas however, were set apart until Cabic could get the complete band together in a Hoboken (New Jersey) based studio, and can be found in the album's more energetic middle section, where “Right Away”, Wonder Why” and “Ride, Ride, Ride” follow each other up with an increasing amount of energy and Rock feel in the sound. Follow a couple of calmer songs again, completing the album's circle.

If the above had you growing hot for this band, and you were looking to find a lot of the album's material available for a pre-buy listening, you might return from a cold shower. No music is posted at the band's own website (www.) vetiverse (but it learns us that the band was in Europe around the album' release, even did a show at Brussel's Botanique on June 17 – well, sorry this review wasn't posted earlier, but I hàve been swamped in more work than I could handle!), but at (www.) myspace.com/vetiverse you can download the track “Wonder Why” for free, as well as listen to a couple of the band's older songs. So, if you're looking to hear some more music of the band's last album, you'll have to make due with the 30-second samples usually posted at the trusted online sales websites, have a listening session at you local record store (providing they have the album), or order it. The band will be back on US soil by July 10, and so I don't think this will be posted soon enough to alert anyone in the neighborhood of Paris (France, July 7), Nothingham (UK, July 6) or Manchester (also UK, July 5) about the band's last European shows, this side of the Summer!

Final personal observation. For me personally, it took quite some time to get what this band was up to, and it wasn't until after I'd read the background info on the recordings (from the band's own website's bio) that I actually started getting into the thing as a whole. I hope the above explanations and references will aid you, dear reader, in appreciating the new Vetiver album a bit faster than I did, because at the end of the day, this is a great album to be played (okay, this is me tom-fooling with my own words as I write 'em down), especially on a hot Summer's eve, when we go sit out on the porch with an iced lemonade to cool off somewhat before bedding down.

82/100

Tony.