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The Smiles and Frowns
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Description: | CD on Akoustik Anarkhy |
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| Format: | CD | |
| Genre(s): | Experimental Pop | |
| Label: | Akoustik Anarkhy | |
| Price: |
£9.29
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| Availability: | Dispatched within 2-5 days (on average). |
...according to our Brett on 12 August 2010.
This is sort of a slightly psychedlic, folky, poppy sort of effort that was apparently recorded in 8-track DIY style in one of the dudes' houses. At various points I've been reminded of The Thrills (who were obviously loads worse than this), The Zombies and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd (who were both obviously loads better than this, but that's hardly any sort of condemnation). There's a bit of an Americana sort of thing going on too, particularly with the oft-present barroom piano. It's not cutting through the office babble hugely well but it sounds very well put together musically and the songs sound strong enough that they'd get their hooks right into you after a good listen or two.
The Smiles and Frowns album is the debut LP from Phoenix, Arizona’s The Smiles and Frowns, aka Adam Mattsonand Christopher James. A sparkling eight-track oddity, it’s a golden ticket into the duo’s strange, hugely imaginativeworld, comprising what they describe as “haunted train ride songs, children’s theme music songs and psychedelicscience fiction songs.”
* This is an escapist fantasy world in which every song tells a story, a series of fables set to music that occupies a spacesomewhere between Randy Newman, Elliott Smith and Pink Floyd. Says Adam: “When I close my eyes, I see cartoonsplaying in the darkness of my mind, so I usually write about those.”
* Opener Sam is the tale of a musician’s rise and fall, Huevos Rancheros is the story of a truck driver and a bunch ofpigs and Mechanical Songs is about a marionette trying to escape the puppet world. Another, Cornelius is about a boynamed Cornelius who communicates with animals, plants, and insects with his magical flute.?
* A true DIY project, the album was recorded in a room in Adam’s house, which is pictured on the album sleeve. “Thewalls are lined with red paisley and it is usually kept pretty dark. You can occasionally hear a nearby train blasting itswhistle in the night, from inside the room.” They decided to keep the LP short, sharp and attention grabbing – a neateight tracks. “The idea was to makeach song fit its own world and be its own ‘place’ that you can visit for 2 minutes before it’s over and fades out,they say.
* What they’ve been saying Stateside –“So many get it so wrong, but these pop gems paint with such vivid colours I can see each psych masterpiece hangingon my wall” - pitchfork 8.0"This release is easily one of the best indie music debut albums of the year - seriously, if you can wear down an MP3album by playing it too much, we're well on the way with this one" - indierockcafe.comwww.myspace.com/thesmilesandfrowns www.akoustikanarkhy.co.uk
1.Sam 2.Cornelius 3.The Memory Man 4.Huevos Rancheros 5.March of the Phantom Faces 6.Whenthe Time Should Come 7.Mechanical Songs 8.The Echoes of Time
