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Rating:
When making music means "employing the least to achieve the most."
This album is the perfect synthesis of what was just said; the American Analog Set, hailing from the Austin, Texas area, coin a type of music that is simple, light, melodic, minimalist yet profound, disarming in its beauty and captivating in its circularity.
Upon first listening to this latest work "Promise Of Love", released in 2003, one might feel a bit unsatisfied. But never be too quick to judge! One risks not appreciating masterpieces like this. Music that delves deep into recreating a certain atmospheric, intimate rock-ambient, dear to slow-core formations like Low and Codeine, but with something more, and only listening can tell us what this additional factor is, difficult to explain.
It starts with "Continuous Hit Music" where a hypnotic organ drone is emphasized (remember "Baba O' Riley?), repetitive but never tiring; everything slips away towards "Hard To Find" where Andrew Kenny's voice whispers undisturbed melodies of bygone times, as in the beautiful "Come Home Baby Julie, Come Home" accompanied by Lisa Roschmann's keyboards which manage to draw sounds from the magic box that bring to mind the times when one was a child and discovered the joy in opening the music box given by the grandmother; all very beautiful.
The albeit brief journey concludes with "Modern Drummer," an ensemble of cello and keyboards lasting eight minutes showing the band capable of venturing into elongation and songwriting. Dreamlike atmospheres accompanied by impeccable production; the sound is clear and well-structured.
Those who loved Blonde Redhead's "Misery Is A Butterfly" or Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" will find in this work a more than valid alternative, if not a worthy adversary. They deserve all my esteem and hopefully yours as well; for this, I award them a 5.
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