[rating=4.50]
Brooklyn bred psychedelic indie folkers Akron/Family released their fifth long player, S/T II : The Cosmic Birth and the Journey of Shinju TNT in February. The band members who split their time between Brooklyn and Portland, OR claim to have no idea what the title of the album means. No matter, because the song cycle is truly special, the first great release of 2011. This is a collection that blends together so seamlessly it sounds as if the whole album was birthed in one torrential, tropical downpour. There seems to be a vague island/ocean theme to the record that ties the mood together in a strangely epic way. The songs themselves don’t sound particularly tropical or influenced by any notable oceanic culture but there is a wondrous, hazy feel that sprawls across the album. The impetus for the sounds and mood seem as if they began amongst spectacular nights of LSD stargazing against a backdrop of imposingly jagged cliffs, crystal blue water and angry volcanoes. In turn, Akron/Family creates an epically hopeful rock record by way of creatively weird song arrangements, drop-dead melodies and the power of foggy faith.
First two tracks “Silly Bears” and “Island” play as a representative duo for the album’s vibe. “Silly Bears” is more up-tempo and smacks us in the face immediately like a lost Animal Collective outtake. Distorted hand claps, chanted vocals and melodically screaming guitars. An awesomely crisp riff cascades from atop the Shinju volcano and begins to dance with frothy synths. Locked inside a kinetic, shuffle beat the band sings, “Where’d you get that honey/That honey’s so sweet”. Then they ascend toward the freaky stars with gorgeous harmonies and a touching sense of reverie.
Interestingly, founding member Ryan Vanderhoof left Akron/Family in 2007 to live in a Buddhist ashram in the Midwest and in a similar way that Vanderhoof now pursues God on a different path one gets the sense Akron/Family are doing the same with these musical prayers. “Island” is the perfect ode to a steamy and heady tropical morning. Cue this track in the depths of your winter and surrender to its melancholic underbelly. The nostalgic tone sounds like the wish of snow bound longing – “I wanna be on a island/Off the coast of Mexico there’s an island/Where the tropical sand and boats can heal my mind/I’ll light the nighttime sky with fire. I wanna color the sky”. More methodical than “Silly Bears”, “Island” begins to surge toward the heavens and when the space ship arrives we are firmly entrenched in another land, another time, with the waves crashing at our feet.
“A AAA O A WAY” plays like an ode to old friends, feeding interstellar vocal spasms through creaky electronics. The song weirdly conjures a similar desire for escape – “I’m going to go, away from here”. The thick and chunky riff of “So It Goes” awakens us face down in the sand after the ayahuasca wears off. The band begins to channel an epic Dr. Dog vs. Flaming Lips fight with high harmonies as the resonant referee far in the distance.
“Another Sky” > “Light Emerges” >”Cast a Net” is the centerpiece and triumphant triumvirate of the album. As good a section of studio music you will hear all year begins with a blistering guitar riff and off Akron/Family whirls into a snappy, psychedelic mantra surging with deep bass tones. When the band sings in a gorgeous melody -“O we sailed into the night and took that sea on blindly/ Escaping all the glitter and the fray/And no we cant deny the fear that grows of being swallowed whole/We’ll row to sunny shores and start again/Beneath another sky” – the heart vibrantly stirs. Imagine a band of brothers setting off on a voyage to define themselves forever amidst a sunburnt sky on the open seas.
The album’s cohesive weirdness takes further shape with “Light Emerges” as a delicate vibraphone melody merges with lyrics that suddenly see “nature glowing”. The track seems to welcome an epic sunrise with rollicking drums, electronic squawks and even more pretty melodies. Soon, “Light Emerges” goes all epic before the ship’s radio system craps out and all that’s left is an acoustic guitar to pass the time. “Cast a Net” follows as a wide-eyed piece of psych-folk that would make Devandra Bandhart tear up. Gorgeous.
A cohesive yet ramshackle beauty bleeds into the Shinju Ocean as the album moves through its final third. The spastic rock of “Fuji I (Global Dub)” and the interlocking grooves of “Say What You Want To” keep the creative juices bubbling through the speakers. The shimmering tropical kaleidoscope winds down inside the haunting Chariots of Fire- in-dub piano twinkling of “Creator”. Shinju will open your eyes, melt your face a time or two and sweetly sew your soul back together.
