Trouble Books - Gathered Tones

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

5...according to our Brian on Thu 04 Mar, 2010.

Trouble Books have a new album of pastoral analogue loveliness out, a record that from the off caresses your ears with bloopy, languid synths, cosmic ephemera & wistful vocals. I can hear The Magnetic Fields, Casiotone FTPA, Postal Service & a spot of Grandaddy in these tender, organic pop songs. I can especially sense a strong kinship with old experimental alchemists The Microphones when the feller sings, that otherworldly naturalistic flow where these lapping waves of sound & instrumentation shift from the mechanical to the almost human, curling their tendrils around the loose arrangements; lush, tentative guitar exploration and sparse percussive frills. This 3 piece have created a beautiful, pure soundworld all of their own with lashings of warmth & instant appeal! Well lush! LP only....

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Trouble Books have cultivated another
garden lush with odd sounds, loops and
drones to walk through and explore.
Handmade experimental pop songs blossom
from under synthesizer swells and guitar
clouds, later to be buried in noise or drift into
ambient atmospherics.
The sounds on Gathered Tones seem to come
from a location far from Keith Freund and
Linda Lejsovka!s attic or Mike Tolan!s sitting
room in Akron, Ohio. Instead the spluttering
electronics and analog sequencers suggest a
place like the exotic set of the 1972 film Silent
Running where space stations filled with
geodesic domes float in orbit around Saturn,
filled with leafy plants and small birds. The
quietly sung lyrics about daily life and chores
bring the songs back to Earth and make
Gathered Tones another warm and personal
recording from a group of friends.
On the United Colours of Trouble Books:
“a perfect autumnal record, wrapping itself around you like a warm
blanket…. Nigh on perfect.” – Drowned in Sound
“ It!s easy to get lost in the eclectic soundscapes of Ohio-based band
Trouble Books… The gorgeous mix of meandering instrumental
arrangements, expansive ambiance, and wonderfully earnest vocals
creates a sort of spacey chamber pop that seems to float wherever
the wind may take it.” – National Public Radio
“Ramshackle songcraft with a somehow otherworldly quality that
melts in your ears. Highly Recommended.” - Boomkat