Los Angeles, California: sun, surf, and sorrow? It seems like an unlikely combination, but this is where Neil Young etched out the wounded After the Gold Rush and the Counting Crows' made their masterful post-fame comedown record, Recovering the Satellites. In that tradition comes the third release from the gracefully downtrodden Radar Brothers, a trio founded by former Medicine and Maids of Gravity member Jim Putnam. And the Surrounding Mountains draws inspiration from Young's Americana songbook, spinning unadorned vocals and sonic brushstrokes at a glacial pace. Ethereal tracks like "On the Line" and "Still Evil" break through the haze, but it's not the individual songs so much as the overall calm, world-weary feeling that makes the record such a fragile treasure. Fans still reeling from the loss of similarly afflicted Los Angeles sadcore band Acetone would be well advised to clear space on their CD shelves for this one. --Aidin Vaziri
Review by Christina Saraceno
On the Radar Bros.' third release, And the Surrounding Mountains, the Los Angeles trio -- Jim Putnam (vocals/guitar), Steve Goodfriend (drums), and Senon Gaius Williams (bass) -- retains the guitar-strummed slow dirges that earned the band a slowcore tag. But And the Surrounding Mountains is a stunning collection of songs that build on that slowcore reputation literally. Keyboards, electric guitar, and vocals are layered throughout as each song escalates to a peak and a final denouement. Nowhere is this better realized than on "Rock of the Lake," where a singsong acoustic guitar strum builds into vocal harmonies and spooky synth wind noises until Putnam sings, "Out in the lake of all truth/Rise to the surface you hunter you killer you fool." It doesn't stop there; the song continues to escalate as an electric guitar punctuates the melody and Putnam's normally serene vocals take on a slight urgent tone as he sings, "Just keep moving on/The high water's coming on/In this water they will carry me to you." It's around this point in the record you might realize something horribly, horribly wrong has gone down at the "surrounding mountains" among the family members who are name-checked in song titles: "You and the Father," "Uncles," "Mothers," and the utterly eerie "Sisters." On that track, the piano and percussive rhythm are layered with a guitar, light backing vocals, and trumpet when Putnam informs, "They been missing for a week/From here the weapon looks clean/Too bad the older sisters are taking it home." And appropriately enough, "Still Evil" begins with a backwards synth vocal that sounds otherworldly before Putnam counts off and an acoustic twangy strum leads to piano and an electric guitar before he sings the chorus: "You are still evil/In my sword you'll be caught." Never has anything so lovely been so frightening.
|
