Early Years, The

Hypnotic, lush rock. UK (and sounds like it!) three-piece that grew out of a solo project (of David Malkinson) in 2004. Male vocals (sometimes in harmony). Songs morph: gentle -- intense; psychedelic -- noisy; etc. Play with The Bats, The Clean, Electrelane, Gravenhurst, Harmonia, Ride, Beautiful New Born Children. Great album! FCC clean. Start with 1, 5, 7.

==> 1. Hypnotic, very Bats-like. Then again, builds in a way that's very Electrelane-like (and, so, is in the direction of Krautrock). Starts with simple, fast guitar arpeggio. Extreme flanging & then slow fade.
2. Minimalist ballad. Starts with slide guitar. False ending, then quiet, then fade.
3. Up-tempo, dancey & hypnotic. Bats-like again. Starts with high-speed solo snare. Instrumental for first minute+. Ends with repeated "simple solution" during fade.
4. Slow (& pretty) psychedelic ballad. Sounds a lot like Richard Butler's self-titled album from last year (& even a bit like Coldplay... you've been warned if you're scared of them). Starts with quiet arpeggio electric guitar. Slow fade.
==> 5. Lush, melodic, romantic harmony ballad. Turns into ambient washes with unintelligible vocals, then intense jazzy ambience. Starts with multi-tracked strummed guitar + drums. Slow fade on tom-tom hits.
6. Meandering, dreamy, psychedelic instrumental. Moments of intensity. Fades up with electronics, then slow drums. Slow fade.
==> 7. High-energy, insistent krautrock with Beta-band-like vox. Intense tremolo noise guitar from start to end. Starts intense. Ends cold.
8. Dreamy, floaty ballad. Lush vocals. Sparse but layered. Starts impressionistic & quiet. Gains in intensity like an Electrelane song. Climaxes, gets quiet again.... picks up pace & intensity again. Slow fade.
9. Short, ambient instrumental. Fades up with ambient washes, and fades into the next track.
10. Lullaby that begins sparse and grows in layers to an epic ballad... somewhere between Doves and Flux A.D. Starts with pretty acoustic guitar arpeggio. Crescendo and then quick fade.