- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
Artist: White Rainbow
Album: New Clouds
Label: Kranky
Playtime: 67:05 min
Genre: Psychedelic
URL: http://www.myspace.com/whiterainbowwhiterainbow
Rip date: 2009-10-26
Street date: 2009-10-20
Size: 99.45 MB
Type: Normal
Quality: 196 kbps / 4410kHz / Joint Stereo
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
As clichΘd as it can be to say that an album is "aptly named," White
Rainbow's New Clouds truly has a fitting title. Adam Forkner's second Kranky
release blends and builds its layers of sound into tracks that are as softly
dense and massive as towering cumulus clouds. If this album sounds even more
quintessentially of its label than Prism of Eternal Now did, it shouldn't be
surprising: Forkner toured with fellow Kranky denizens Atlas Sound and Valet
in support of that album, and those groups' hypnotic haze inspired him to
make his own music more expansive and atmospheric. New Clouds' enmeshed
percussion, guitars, vocals, and synths complement each other more
organically than ever before, suggesting avant electronics, drone rock, and
blissful new age without borrowing from any of those styles too obviously.
Forkner channels this newfound subtlety into four tracks that are dynamic
despite their softness. Where Prism of Eternal Now kept at least a few toes
on terra firma, New Clouds whisks listeners away immediately with "Tuesday
Rollers and Strollers," which finds bliss in repetition over the course of 18
minutes. At the heart of the track, two acid-tinged guitar melodies play
against each other, slowly building momentum as hand drums and crunchy and
droning electronic textures cushion them. Forkner's vocals don't appear until
ten minutes in, and they're carried off on whooshing synth pad tides as the
song closes. The rest of the album is slightly more subdued after this
striking beginning, but no less intriguing. "All the Boogies in the World"
puts tribal, linear drones through circular vocals, and becomes more and more
elongated so gradually that the shift is almost imperceptible; "Major
Spillage" -- the album's shortest track at a mere 12 minutes -- offers some
breathing room from New Clouds' major pieces with gliding guitars that
reflect and refract like ripples in a pool. "Monday Boogies Forward Forever"
closes the album by bringing its earlier explorations together in a gently
wild piece anchored by a serene bassline and topped by chanting vocals.
Impressively impressionistic, New Clouds is a rare mix of restful and
engaging, and a significant step forward for Forkner.
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
01. Tuesday Rollers and Strollers (18:06)
02. Major Spillage (12:49)
03. All the Boogies in the World (20:09)
04. Monday Boogies Forward Forever (16:01)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -