| Windy & Carl / Allegiance and Conviction |
|---|
| Album: | Allegiance and Conviction | Collection: | General | |
| Artist: | Windy & Carl | Added: | 03/2020 | |
| Label: | Kranky | |||
| Album Review |
|---|
| DJ Away Reviewed 2020-04-01 | ||
|
First album for Kranky in eight years by these ambient/shoegaze legends. Exceptionally sumptuous guitar and bass textures, carefully defined and not overwhelming. Windy & Carl are a married couple who run a record store in Dearborn, MI, and have been making music like this since the early nineties. Compared to previous releases, this album is more song-focused and has cleaner, more prominent vocals (which sound great in this context). It's also a concept album about "a spy who finds herself in trouble and has to find a way to survive." RIYL His Name Is Alive, Slowdive, Hammock, Grouper, Sister Grotto/Midwife. Favorites: 1, 3, 6. No FCCs detected. 1. *(4:33)—Slow Velvet Underground vibe to start, lovely background guitar textures. The vocals and guitars aren't really in key with each other, and the effect is quite nice. 2. (6:43)—Vocals more buried, wonderful melodic washes of guitar and bass. 3. *(9:04)—Sounds like an old surf track run through a chain of effects and layered over itself five times. Glimmering and intense. 4. (6:30)—Controlled shoegaze-noise blast, starts loud, gentle singing underneath. 5. (5:48)—No vocals. Rippling glass keyboard textures, like from the first Eluvium album. 6. *(5:52)—Fades in quickly. Ambient haze, jittery guitar melody with muted distortion. "Running, I am running through the trees." Slint-like spoken word, slow fades to just moody guitar. | ||
| Track Listing |
|---|
| 1. | The Stranger | 4. | Alone | |||
| 2. | Recon | 5. | Will I See the Dawn | |||
| 3. | Moth to the Flame | 6. | Crossing Over |