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Sonic Detours (Review)
Sonic Detours 5/27/99
By Kevin Slick
Transcribed by Sonic Detours Online
39 Cover Image
Gritty poetic rock with no drums. It's a return to the early seventies ala Lou Reed, ultimate garage music. Although it's really a little more intimate than the average garage band, more like bedroom music. There's a few strange keyboard sounds, and what sounds like an old analog delay unit in overdrive on occassion, but it's mostly guitars and vocals. What else do you need? This album is a good example of the likeable side of "lo-fi" recording. The songs carry the day, simple melodies that you can hum along with right away and some fine guitar playing (and what are those strange sounds that crawl out of the mix in the background?) You have to say Lou Reed at least twice in any review of this disc, so I've done that, now I can say Billy Bragg and Robyn Hitchcock. Although I prefer not to simply state influences, or "sounds like..." it's good to bring those artists up to give you an idea what kind of "lo-fi" cheap recorder sounds we're talking about here. The bottom line is when the songs are great, this kind of setting sounds intimate and personal. The songs are indeed fine and the quirky recording makes them all that more accessible.