Rings

The 5th LP from these guys—and their best. Neo-psychedelic pop? more or less. Strong British influences (ie My Bloody Valentine/Syd Barrett) along with a Spiritualized kind of space-pop. Lots of heavy bass and bass drum in many passages and vocals harmonized in such a way as to be interesting and pleasing without being sticky and making me want to dry-heavy. Solid album (give or take the middle) with some interesting tracks—Check out 1, 4, 5, 10, 12.
1) Inter-galactic organ—smooth pop melody ala Spiritualized—good psychedelic guitar work 2) very harmonic vocals with strumming acoustic guitaràwhich are then shot in to the exciting drift of space. Ends on cool guitar 3) kinda an extension of 2—SHORT—piano and drums 4) suspenseful-video-game-of-the-futuristic-tokyo-rpg genre kind of intro which stealths along—VERY mellow with trumpet synth and soft distant vocals. 5) Spaceboy? More disjointed melodt—more solid guitar 6)ehhh… 7) slow drum into w/ techie modulations in the background—always feels restrained never quite gets there… 8) British…Syd Barrett and Nico’s child seems to be singing here…heavy bass drum and piano—bad synth flute at one point…opens up like Spiritualized, in one of their full but none-noise passages. 9) lots of pop vocals… 10) more of the same, but better 11)Ooooooo! Heavier—back to the psychedelic guitar work…warped, distorted vocals, strong instrumental sections…LONG and COOL! 12) soft singing again. DJOXPECKER