Customer Reviews

Antique Glow

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw Kelley Stoltz play at a club here in Chicago. He was just playing acoustic with only one other musician also playing guitar. I was astonished by how strong his sonwriting was and what a great voice he had. He clearly is influenced by the greats: Drake, Nillson, Barrett, Young (Neil). But his style is all his own. Its like he put all of his songwriting influences in a blender and created something entirely new.

I bought the album at the show and popped it in the car on the way home, and was completely shocked by what I heard. I was expecting an album version of what I heard on stage, but what I was met with were many of the same songs only being performed in much more fleshed out arragnements and with a really warm, intimate homespun/home recorded feel. I have never heard anything like this before and I have a collection of over 20,000 rock records.

Subsequent research showed that Kelley recorded the basic tracks in his bedroom on an 8 track recorder playing all the insturments with only minimal proper studio work after he was done. What you get with this is an amzing sense of a songwriter writing and recording at the same time (and not in a lazy stream of conciousness way), you are listening to an artist use the recording as a key part of his creative process. The acoustic songs took on new depth and the record also shows that Stoltz can also bring the rock, "Tubes in the Moonlight" and "Mt. Fuji" are astonishing in their melody and depth. If you like great songwriting and lush arrangements that still rock, you will not be disappointed. This is one of my favorite records in a long time.

Kelley Stoltz is a true gem, a songwriter who channels his influences and speaks in tongues, wrangling with dinosaurs and tricky old 8-track machines as he duckwalks out jugular cords in his Mission bedroom. And out comes this handmade work of beauty, a sprawling crazy architect's house full of sonic nooks (listen with headphones). Its certainly not without its mistakes, but yet his mistakes are more interesting than most band's entire catalogs.

And go see this man live. Never plays a song exactly the same way, his band members trying to keep up...

I've seen bands with riffs and I've seen singers who can break your heart and I've seen songwriters who know more than I do, but I ain't seen all three in one 'til I saw Kelley Stoltz live.

Antique Glow is quite a beautiful album. The opening track is by far the highlight, a slow, dreamy piece of modern psych that stays with you for days and days. The rest of the album, although slightly weak at times, generally maintains a solid and sometimes fascinating standard. The music is most definently psychedelic and the album in general gives off an aura of stoned delight. Jangly acoustic guitars and heavily delayed and fuzzed electrics abound. Contrary to what another reviewer said, I, as a vocalist myself, find his voice quite pleasurable to listen to. Word has it that his live shows are spectacular; he's become very popular in Australia where he played many gigs late last year (incidentally, the cover on the oz version of the album is completely different; it's a picture of a blue bunny rabbit, kind of like Donnie Darko). I highly reccommend this album to anyone interested in solid modern psychedelica.

"Antique Glow" is Kelley Stoltz's second album and miles better than "The Past Was Faster", his first full length. It seems when people review Kelley's music, the same names keep popping up: The Beatles, The Kinks, Beach Boys, Syd Barrett, etc. Not a bad crew to be associated with. I also hear a Skip Spence "Oar" influence on the quieter moments here.

Kelley played almost all of the instruments, except for a few guests, and recorded it in his bedroom on a Tascam 388, so it's kinda lo-fi, but don't let that scare you, it sounds great the way it is, very dreamy. The songs range from mellow psychedelia to dirty garage rock to folky acoustic blues, and, to me, has kind of a late night feel to the whole thing.

Opener, "Perpetual Night", is pure ear candy with it's hazy atmosphere, swelling keyboards and glockenspiel, that flowers into a tripped out jam when the drums kick in. "Underwater's Where The Action Is" could be what The Stooges sounded like if they were more into incense and peppermints than searching and destroying. Instrumental "Tubes In The Moonlight" makes me think of a drunken CAN playing surf rock with an insane oboeist(?!).

The liner notes say "Antique Glow" was recorded from 1999-2001, but it sounds more like 1967-1970. After this he took a less psychedelic approach, and his songwriting skills became more prominent, but all of his albums so far are worth checking out, especially "Below The Branches".

It's kind of upsetting to me that Kelley Stoltz and this wonderful little record still remain relatively unknown, but then again it's kind of a cool little secret.

If you like warmed-over Syd Barrett, here's your guy. A few nice tunes but becomes monotonous very quickly. Stoltz can't sing worth a damn - I'd like this a lot more if his vocals were wiped and a real singer overdubbed.