Most Popular
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The Talk of the Green Iguana
Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?
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The She-Zebra
Will Erin Meehan be the first female ref in the NFL?
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Are We There Yet?
Jeez, can we just embrace the electric car already?
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Guitar Zero
Maybe the next generation won't even play instruments. Clapton and Hendrix? So passé.
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Accidental Hit Man
Sure, Paul Brandreth talks like a wiseguy. But is he a cold-blooded killer?
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Your Mom Thinks He’s Hot (6)
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Man-Child in the Promised Land (5)
Pop star Sean Kingston hopes the party's just begun
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The Talk of the Green Iguana (3)
Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?
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Guitar Zero (2)
Maybe the next generation won't even play instruments. Clapton and Hendrix? So passé.
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Shooting the Moon (2)
Aim high or aim low, you're bound to hit something, even if it's the sleep button
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Cheat Sheet to Langerado
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Licensed to Chill
How the Beasties went from hip-hop pranksters to musical renaissance men
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Paul Potts
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Not Your Father's N Word
Eight months after its "burial," the world's most dangerous epithet is more popular than ever in hip-hop
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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
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Owen Wilson And His Hat Visit FTL
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Palm Beach Post Publisher Giuffrida Stepping Down
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G. Love and Special Sauce Hit Langerado
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Recent Articles By Jonathan Zwickel
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Subject(s): Feathers
We considered running for this review a roll call of every genre and reference point that Feathers touches upon in this five-song EP. But then we realized we simply don't have the space. Yes, this is merely an album of music. But it distills so many far-flung and arcane touchstones — from Kraftwerk to game-show themes to Morricone to garage psych to Middle Eastern tonalities to '80s electro to surf guitar to... you get the picture — that Synchromy evokes more images and emotions than seems possible in a mere 19 minutes. Feathers' breadth only hints at its brilliance, though. The true talent of the Miami trio (augmented here by an ensemble cast that includes Tortoise drummer and production whiz John McEntire) lies in how it organizes such a vast palette into compact, complete sonic gems. More than 30 instruments are listed in the liner notes, from the familiar types to the not-so-familiar, like the "xylorimba," "musser ampli-celeste," and "electron sidstation." But whatever these instruments are, they're used mostly with elegant restraint, more likely to underscore than overwhelm. Synchromy is full of genre-lubed, stylistic changes, hair-pinning the album into playful knots, so just when a synth-driven, post-rock groove is thrumming strong, it segues into a midnight jazz-rock crescendo or longing, lamenting, string section coda. So instead of a meticulous list of what you'll find here, we'll give you what's in our gut: Feathers is really, really cool.
