▄▄ [ INFORMATION ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ ARTIST: Crushed Stars █
█ TITLE: In the Bright Rain █
█ LABEL: Simulacra █
█ GENRE: Indie █
█ BITRATE: 239kbps avg █
█ PLAYTIME: 0h 36min total █
█ RELEASE DATE: 2012-00-00 █
█ RIP DATE: 2012-03-11 █
█ URL: █
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▄▄ [ TRACKLIST ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ 01. Leave Town 2:15 █
█ 02. Brighter Now 3:29 █
█ 03. Copenhagen 4:24 █
█ 04. Color Kites 4:38 █
█ 05. Pretty Girls Are Everywhere 4:50 █
█ 06. Bedtime For Dreamers 2:49 █
█ 07. Window 3:34 █
█ 08. House On The Hill 3:30 █
█ 09. Take Flight 7:01 █
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▄▄ [ NOTES ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ Review from Blurt Magazine: █
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█ The most profound insights can flit across the mind between conscious █
█ and subconscious states. Remembering, let alone conveying these fleeting █
█ manifestations, can be even more challenging than dream recreation. Todd █
█ Gautreau seems to have assumed this task as a life quest. Via his █
█ Crushed Stars project, and the more electronically-based Sonogram, he █
█ pieces elements into audio pictures that often match or eclipse anything █
█ that's happening in the Dream Pop genre. █
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█ Much of Gautreau's output could be a soundtrack for Rene Magritte's █
█ illustrations of subconscious meanderings and emotions. At least aspects █
█ of his work enlarge upon the minimalist explorations of Erik Satie, who █
█ called himself a phonometrician, or "someone who measures sound." As █
█ Crushed Stars, Gautreau's palette includes acoustic and electric █
█ guitars, his voice (the timbre of which he adjusts to accommodate █
█ expression), electronic and digital elements, and a rainbow of █
█ "alternative" or Progressive Rock effects. His increasing ability to █
█ intuitively collage elements from this palette was evidenced by Cubists, █
█ his 2011 Sonogram release. █
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█ The last thing listeners should expect is to be obviously or immediately █
█ staggered by Gautreau's music. In the Bright Rain opens with the █
█ fecklessly familiar structures of two tracks that could have been █
█ incorporated into recent efforts by Cass McCombs, Amor de Dias, or Chad █
█ VanGaalen. An entire album with more of the same would probably be █
█ welcomed by the Indie Alternative community. But "Leave Town" and █
█ "Brighter Now" seem to be Gautreau's way of doing a few water laps █
█ before submerging a bit deeper with the third track, "Copenhagen." █
█ "Color Kites," the fourth strata of In the Bright Rain, evolves into █
█ sublimity. Here one hears a new level of elemental (as in, mixing █
█ chemical and/or alchemical elements) mastery. █
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█ With "Color Kites," Gautreau achieves something that's been tackled -- █
█ with varying degrees of success -- by artists utilizing various media, █
█ which is to recreate the transition from late afternoon to early █
█ evening, or twilight. It's an engaging, almost heady space. If he needs █
█ to go back inside to brew a cup of herbs ("Pretty Girls are █
█ Everywhere"), after which he heads back out to pick some blackberries █
█ ("Bedtime for Dreamers"); the trajectory feels organic. In the future, █
█ as occurs for stretches of Cubists, Gautreau may just whisper a few █
█ words in our ears before helping us onto an audio platform that ascends █
█ gently before hovering indefinitely in transcendence. For now, sublimity █
█ and transcendence threaten to subsume the balance of In the Bright Rain. █
█ While it can feel bathetic, the album's intermittent banality (relative █
█ to itself, not other music) may be one of the keys to its subtle █
█ majesty. There's tension in Gautreau's variance of full, partial, and █
█ medium immersion. █
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█ In any case, the passionate pitch of "House on the Hill," echoes places █
█ visited by the Moody Blues on Days of Future Passed. And the subliminal █
█ magnetism of In the Bright Rain's quiet climax exemplifies Gautreau's █
█ growing alchemical mastery. The seven minutes and one second of "Take █
█ Flight" are so quietly beautiful that climbing back down to what's █
█ commonly called reality can feel achingly disruptive. █
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