The multi-instrumentalist Al Marantz finds himself in the company of Travis Hagan (drums), Jeff Somers (lead guitar on one track) and John Brown (backing vocals and direction) for this certainly atypical and memorable 11 tracks and just over 30 minutes of very distinct indie-pop.<\/p>\n
\u201cRotten Progress\u201d opens the listen with an acutely charming brand of indie-rock that uses crisp drumming, playful bass lines and very descriptive singing to its advantage, and \u201cMechanical Heartbeat\u201d follows with a more folk-friendly approach that swirls with retro melodies you won\u2019t soon forget. <\/p>\n
Elsewhere on the first half of the listen, the cozy spirit of \u201cStreet Dog\u201d jangles playfully, while \u201cOpen Up Your Blinds\u201d gets a bit hazy with some psychedelic bouts. \u201cInterlude,\u201d which clocks in under a minute, is even more cinematic and exploratory in a sci-fi sort of way. <\/p>\n
The back half of the listen is just as great, and even a bit more diverse. \u201cBlue Dye\u201d recruits some jazz nods into its rhythmic energy, and \u201cWait In The Gutter\u201d gets quite soulful with its very precise use of piano. The album\u2019s best tune, \u201cHarvey Gunn,\u201d lands near the end, and is fueled by acoustic guitar as it emits a stylish folk quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cMemory Palace\u201d and \u201cOde\u201d exit the record, where the former is a dreamy, lo-fi affair, and the latter finishes the listen bare, soothing even, and might even be spiritual to some ears.<\/p>\n
Music this atypical usually takes several listens to really earn its worth (to me, at least), but Marantz\u2019s vision is instantly striking and often reminds me of the first time I heard Jeff Humphrey (R.I.P.) and his brand of lo-fi folk-pop. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re like me and still prefer music in physical form, you’ll need a cassette player, and it\u2019s a colorful one with a download code, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":34682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10813],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46537","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-al-marantz","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46537"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}