Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
sad that imagination it fades because everyone must get paid..., December 23, 2005
the only thing "wrong" with this cd is that there are some strange breaks and inconsistencies: but that comes from any split project. and who needs another cd that is a coherent whole from beginning to end? let's have the edges...
there is absolutely nothing less than glowing that can be said about akron/family. musically & vocally: genius. (a word reserved for few) lyrically: simple yet poetic and intensely critical & crazy smart. their half of this split cd collects their recent newer material from their live set, which is phenomenal. it is quite different from their s/t debut (which doesn't disappoint). yes, there are 60s psychedelic riffs; yes, there is even a touch of 70s rocker rock. and yes, there is a lot of perverse partridge family harmonizing. for the kids, moments will sound a lot like a cross btw dungen + devendra + the partridge family + brian jonestown massacre, with a little bit of inexplicable, uncontainable, incomparable postpunk energy thrown in. (live, they do convey the pure power of mid90s swans shows: more than the gira connection. that still wall of sound effect, however, translates less in the recordings.) every a/f track is exquisite, differently. "future myth" should be played in nurseries. "dylan part ii" is melancholia in motion.
"oceanside" picks up the quieter sounds of their debut (a la "sorrow boy," a personal fave). "raising sparks," though, is the standout...and literally the show closer: not only the 60s riffs but the evangelical style raising of the ghost. if you're not dancing, even a little bit, you're just dead inside!
when combined with gira for the last 5 tracks, akron/family quietly breathe some life into the songs. despite what the other reviewer says, i don't think these tracks are much like the other angels discs... not even like "AoL sing other people" (which was gira w/ the boys, too). here gira seems to give them more room, they seem to be working more comfortably together, and it works. these tracks are darker than "sing" (even though that is *lyrically* not as cheery as i've seen other reviewers elsewhere believe it is), and is in a vein closer to "burning world" era swans meets velvet underground moments. yes, weird. the dylan cover contains most of the twang of other angels discs. it's totally anomalous & disruptive & doesn't belong here except for the sheer irony. but to hear gira do dylan is a nice centerpiece. so that track nicely splits apart (not segues) the 2 halves of the split. the cd rounds out w/ 4 tracks that are really stunning. the redo of "mother/father" takes what was only an ok original (tho do love jarboe) and actually transforms it into a whole new & quite incredible song. "come for my woman"--the last track--starts in a way closest to older angels material, but it has the a/f choir effect that is quite strange, and then it comes around to an end that wraps up the whole cd with a strangely powerful drone.
hopefully gira & the akron boys imaginations won't fade & they'll still get paid... buy this cd.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darn Good/Waiting For More, November 23, 2005
So, a quickie album of sorts, split between Akron/Family and Akron/Family playing M Gira's backing band. The first 7 songs are from the Akrons and they surprised me. I'd already heard their debut album and wasn't blown away by it. I thought they were decent, but nothing truly spectacular for the genre they're in. But here, the sounds are much broader in scope.
"Raising the Sparks," for one, is just craziness. It starts off with a 60's/classic rock riff. About 1/3 of the way through, the song shifts into a looney, shouted melody that is incessant, despite its oddity. The last 1/3 of the song shifts to something else entirely, the kind of sweet, but off-kilter stuff one could've imagined would come from Brian Wilson.
With Gira's voice, a different mood takes hold. The cover of Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" is very good and the performance of it very straight-forward. The version of Swans' "Mother/Father" is a totally different take on the song, originally sung by Jarboe, here it is Gira taking the lead with Akron/Family sounding like a choir of drunkards in Hell. Overall, nothing strikingly new or different for Gira, but as always, the quality is very high, the songs and performance very good. If you already like AoL, this will not disappoint.
If you're a fan of this stuff, check out these other bands: Woven Hand, Palodine and Strange Rebel Frequency.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Always good, January 27, 2006
A few years ago Michael Gira did some folk music. Later he released some records by Devendra Banhart. Now he has a band of four Devendras. It is pretty interesting results. "Awake" is almost Beatlesque. That goes into the crazy Captain Beefheart jazz of "Moment." Some of the Akron stuff is folk music and some is psychedelic rock. "Raising The Sparks" is much like some cool Prog Rock. Gira covers a Dylan song "I Pity The Poor Immigrant." The song "The Provider" reminds me the most of The Swans. "One For Hope" is a really lovely sounding song. "Mother/Father" is really a new version of an old Swans songs. Gira makes it sound very tribal. "Come For My Woman" sounds like it could be in a Sergio Leone film. Gira has done a lot of recent interesting music in the past three years. Hopefully this is not overlooked.
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~ Akron/Family
~ Akron/Family
~ Bill Callahan
~ Angels Of Light
~ Black Dice
by The Angels of Light 
