Compared to Michael Gira's other great discovery, Devendra
Banhart, Akron/Family's music is less immediate, but
possessed of a slow, seeping potency
transmitted through carefully layered arrangements
that bubble away under seemingly tranquil
acoustic surfaces. Gira's Young God label has
constructed a beguiling semi-mythology around this
quartet of young musicians, now Brooklyn-based but
originally transplanted from rural origins.
Akron/Family is presented as pastoral spontaneity
meets folk spirituality, a debut album dressed up in
the arcane imagery of Albertus Seba's 18th century
illustrations from The Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.
But it is also a meticulously assembled world of
sound, as much a product of contemporary studio
montage techniques as of timeless melodies. This
doesn't necessarily raise doubts about the group's
sincerity, but it does suggest a lineage descended as
much from, say, Four Tet as from The Band (whose
members were themselves self-consciously drawn to
myth-making). Another clue may be found in the
typography, in the ambiguity of that slash dividing
the band's name — they're not so much practicing the
art of deception as nodding playfully at their own
self-invention.
The music confidently mixes crystalline
acoustic melodies with slurries of percussion and
noise samples, gradually peeling back the band's simple folk facade
to reveal the textural sophistication of their compositions.
Which is not to
say these songs lack emotional impact. They connect in a roundabout way, loping
in lazily
drawn concentric circles, but their irresistible
centripetal force draws you in until you're
fully submerged. Musical touchstones include Tim
Buckley at his most diffuse and oceanic (the
intricate, keening sprawl of "Running, Returning")
alongside Nick Drake at his most touchingly direct
("Afford," "I'll Be on the Water"), but these are
sketchy evocations at best — the band's sound is
firmly its own, peppered with multiple idiosyncrasies,
detours and about-turns. Using field recordings to
flesh out their acoustic vignettes and often wildly
diversifying within the space of a single song,
Akron/Family merge shifting, sometimes
impressionistic arrangements with limpid lyricism. The result is an elusive — but
strong and deeply fascinating — debut.
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