Music Tapes For Clouds And Tornadoes

Free-form, lilting, lo-fi, psychedelic. Sounds like scratchy field recordings of traditional British and Irish songs. Throaty, emotive singing, which often breaks into rubato solos (ie, free tempo). The musical saw and heavily-plucked banjo chords are featured on almost every track. Lots of other whimsical instruments. By a past member of Neutral Milk Hotel, this is your typical Elephant 6 Collective album. This guy seems pretty bright and takes his music seriously. No detectable FCCs, Main picks: 4, 5, 15

1) (1:22) Ghostly singing saw, throaty singing, ping pong ball tapping noises, dramatic classic movie strings. Starts sparse, gets pretty trippily layered. Starts crying out names of clouds.
2) (0:55) Just singing saw, with some distortion. Creepy.
3) (2:59) Sparse, plodding, with heavily plucked banjo. Same throaty singing.
** 4) (2:45) Great song. Noisy, percussive, exuberant, epic. Poppy, catchy. Heavily reminiscent of Olivia Tremor Control.
** 5) (2:45) At first, waltzy, drifting, with a ghostly chorus of singing saws. Becomes upbeat, with this incredibly catchy piano line with tambourine. No vocals except “Nimbus, Stratus.”
6) (3:14) A little reflective. Accordion. Has this percussive triplet line that starts and stops, punctuated by emotive singing. A lot like Radiohead’s Exit Music.
* 7) (3:58) Another lilting song, also somewhat reflective. Builds up with that singing saw sound, violins, a folksy bass line.
8) (6:04) Pokey, sparse, sadder song. Sounds like it’s played on an old scratchy vinyl. Dramatic singing saw and brass at the end, with maybe some accordion. Gets sparse again, yelpy, emotive and sad.
* 9) (0:54) Just singing saws this time. Sounds like a chorus of ghosts. Dramatic, rich, and yes, creepy.
* 10) (4:46) Strong, upbeat, very similar to Beatles at points. Military drumming. Incongruous fill every so often with solo euphonium and percussion.
11) (3:38) Sounds a lot like other tracks on this album. Sparse with heavily-plucked banjo chorded and yelpy vocals.
* 12) (1:01) The ghost chorus makes a reappearance. More delicate and pretty this time.
** 13) (4:48) Banjo, strings (viola, cello heavy), free form, ¾ waltz. I’m getting this uncontrollable urge to start clog dancing. Cool plucked strings part. Momentum comes in and out.
14) (0:32) Beautiful, antique solo baritone voice, with background noise and talking.
** 15) (3:40) Carefree, tom-heavy drumming, vocal dum-dum-dum’s and warm scratchy synth, in swung 5/4 time

-dannyn