Customer Reviews

Surrounding Mountains

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After 9 years, the Radar Bros have finally landed a deal with a respectable indie label, that being Merge. After two previous LPs, two EPs, and two singles, the Bros have managed to do in music with their third album that most groups fail at- retaining the same sound while changing it just enough that it doesn't sound the same to previous releases.

With the opening track "You and the Father", it is already apparent that the Bros have adopted a somewhat newer, upbeat sound with out abandoning the slow tempos that they love. The follow up is "On the Line" which all I can say about it is that the chorus is very un-Radar Bros, (it is a good song, don't worry.) By the way, the introduction to "You're Still Evil" will scare the ... out of you. It sounds like the introduction to the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want", only with demon children singing it instead. You'll see what I mean.

Otherwise the album has the Radar Bros consistency, soothingness, and saturation of 3/3 and 3/4 measures. The albums biggest highlight goes to Mountains. First off, I think this band couldn't be any more sick of being compared to early Pink Floyd, but something about this track reminds me of Breathe in the Air from Dark Side of the Moon, particularly the piano interludes. The song excels from its rather eery sound, the out-of-time repeated lyrics, the 7/4 (7/8?) time measure, and the wonderfully placed whistling of frontman Jim Putnam.

The Radar Bros are definately not for everyone. If you're not sure whether or not to check the band out, give the EP a shot before delving into the LPs. If you are a fan of Radar Bros and loved the Singing Hatchet, by all means, why are you wasting your time reading this? Buy it already!

more like a 4.7 actually. the only reason i had to deduct those oh so crucial .3 points is because of the albums lack of variety. the tempo is virtually the same on every song! there are accounting jobs that are more exciting than being the drummer for this band...maybe hes been with the group so long they just dont have the heart to get rid of him. despite the lackluster achievments in percussion the band makes up for this by writing some really beautiful songs. honest to god..there isnt a single bad track on this album. oh..please don't listen to anyone who says this band sounds like pink floyd...i would say more like grandaddy minus the synthesizers. oh and just a hint of beatles (just listen to the first track)

buy this one before getting anyof their other albums...this one is the best.

I think this is their best; the sinister and often curiously skewed lyrics add more of an edge to these deceptively placid sounds, and the contrast--not played for irony but it seems genuine menace, sweet vocals softly rendered notwithstanding. This tension's deepened on this record, their third. The gaps between albums means that the trio takes its time, in-between other recording projects and commitments they have to earn a living as musicians.

The California element common to not only the Crooked Rain desert-era of Pavement but also a less keyboard-sound effects dependent southern Cal predecessor to central Cal's late Grandaddy here does not make the Radar Bros. a copycat, by no means. Rather, a thoughtful, more mature relative of these other two central Cal influences. [I would give it more like 4.5] Remember that Radar Bros. have been at this awhile, if not as long as Pavement or Grandaddy as a trio, but the musicians have previous careers in the local city's indie scene just as long as have those two more familiar (to the rest of the nation) bands.

I don't really hear the Pink Floyd comparisons, but then I am not a rabid fan of that group. This record hearkens to me more back to a twist on the singer-songwriter laid-back earlier 70s L.A. sensibility, somehow if it had missed the country-rock trend and managed to detour this for a subtler but cohesive proto-indie aesthetic. It's lulling rather than mopey, no small feat. The acoustic guitar, the layered bass, drums, and keyboard effects are all stacked carefully under the almost casual vocal style. But it's not the sound of a slacker Malkmus or Lytle. More their older cousin who used to lend them records way back in 1982?

True, the melodic consistency and measured pace of this band does create some detractors. But they manage, who knows how, to avoid the preciousness of Elliot Smith, the mimickry of Smith by the later lineup of Earlimart, the less distinctive sounds of their related predecessors the local band Acetone, and the swirling disorientation of Medicine. All of these like-minded musicians are native or adopted Angelenos--from around five miles at most away from a radius around the Radar Bros. Atwater studio-- in what's still a slightly less trendy district of true eastside (that is, east of the "river" [sic]) L.A.--and while a family tree might be drawn between them and Pavement and Grandaddy, somehow Radar Bros. pull off an original sound distinctive from all of them...even though's it's instantly familiar.

Like the aftermath of all those who fled to the desert around the time of Gram Parsons in 1973, perhaps? This is what the sounds might conjure up after the gold rush, so to speak, the needle's damage done. I too recall a few of their tunes more than once surfacing from my subconscious...days after playing this record--like the music you hear yourself creating magically and perfectly realized only in your dreams.

The fifth track on this masterpiece, "Sisters," sounds like a unjustly forgotten Pink Floyd song from the Syd era. That's not to say this is derivative, as it's the same formula of tremulous, tremendous melancholy. Sounds the same, but the genius is in the infinite variation, kind of like Low with a keener appreciation of crisp recording technology. Buy anything and everything from this band. Oh, and I caught them live at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco and it was perfect.

The Radar Brothers' third full length solidifies them as a fully competent and amazing band. I liked the first two releases when my friend had gotten them, but never bothered seeking them out for purchase. When I heard "And the Surrounding Mountains" for the first time, I was completely amazed at how much they had improved their song writing, structure, and overall production. Their sound is simple and almost classic, yet manages to be extremely complicated in it's simplicity. For me, "Rock of the Lake" is my favorite; A very somber but ultimately reassuring exercise in euphoric country rock. Other stand outs include "On the Line", "Sisters", and "Morning Song" but in the end, every song is beautiful.
This is indeed an album that deserves much more recognition.

Good old Radar Bros, they'll never let you down. "And the Surrounding Mountain" will hook you on slowcore. If only they have more exposure. It's puzzling how good music like this in our own backyard can be buried when the plague of crap music is sparing no one. Buy this, music fans, this is your ticket out.

I thought the Radar Bros' last album, 1999's "The Singing Hatchet" was wonderful, but Surrounding Mountains has even surpassed that masterpiece. The same gorgeous, laconic, opiate-drenched tempos, harmonies, and guitars are back, along with soaring keyboards and even a trippy backwards track on a song or two. The lyrics are more evocative on this album, particularly on the album's best track, "uncles". Radar Bros is the best of slowcore bands like Codeine, early Pink Floyd, and alt.country experimentalists like Giant Sand all put together in a perfect mix. Anyone with taste will love this band...Speed [people] need not apply (but obviously by their ...choice, they do not have taste anyway).

Hypnotic, and remarkably cohesive...These are melodies that you will find yourself humming to later on. The tempo is steady and the lyrics are pretty. There are Floyd influences here...but there is much about this music that is unlike Floyd also...I hear influences from many bands in this album...but regardless of anything this album is similar to...it is a completely original and pleasant experience as a whole body of work. There is something very calming and centering about All the Surrounding Mountains.

With "The Singing Hatchet" and now "And the Surrounding Mountains," the Radar Brothers have released the best Pink Floyd albums of the past twenty years. This is what post-Waters Floyd would have sounded like had Dave Gilmour not been more concerned with light shows than with his strengths.

"Surrounding Mountains" picks up on the best parts of 1999's "Singings Hatchet." There's that mysterious empty space in the music again, and there's the inscrutable glue that somehow ties the songs together ("You and the Father", "Sisters", "Uncles", "Mothers") without revealing the exact meaning behind it all.

Of course, some new ground is broken here. The mix is more orchestrated this time, although not much more complicated. The songs are stronger: the soaring opener, "You and the Father," is the best track the Brothers have ever recorded, and the intro to "Still Evil" features a few seconds of backmasked ambience. These are veritable revolutions for a band that has managed to contain its magic within the same plodding speed and the same four guitar chords for three albums now.

In the end, "And the Surrounding Mountains" features no sound nor idea that has not been done by other musicians before. But here, it's pulled off with such a consistency and spark that I can't get it out of my CD player.

The Radar Bros. might recall Wish You Were Here era Pink Floyd, with Pet Sounds tendencies, but there is so much happening in each of their songs--though movement, action, is so imperceptible at times. There is an intangible, somber beauty to the Radar Bros. music that makes it impossible to describe, lest you defame it.