| The Low Anthem |
| Eyeland (June 17, 2016) |
The Low Anthem — Eyeland (June 17, 2016)
★Ω★ Beautiful new album from the Low Anthem. Sounds Good, Don’t Listen Too Closely Though. This is a beautiful recorded album, worth a listen on good speakers or headphones. Individual songs worked well for me, and the connecting instrumental tracks do not work for me unless I have time to listen attentively to the album as a whole. The Low Anthem’s Eyeland is a triumph of forward thinking. Providence, Rhode Island trio with a textured modern Americana sound.
Jocie Adams was departing The Low Anthem to focus on her new project, Arc Iris.
Formed: 2006 in Providence, RI, U.S.
Location: Providence, RI, United States
Album released: June 17, 2016
Genre: Folk, Country, Pop/Rock
Style: Alternative/Indie Rock, Americana, Indie Folk, Neo–Traditional Folk, Alt–Country, Alternative Pop/Rock
Record Label: Washington Square
Duration: 42:24
Tracks:
01 In Eyeland 4:45
02 Her Little Cosmos 2:54
03 The Pepsi Moon 3:45
04 Ozzie 3:27
05 Waved the Neon Seaweed 4:38
06 Behind the Airport Mirror 2:52
07 In the Air Hockey Fire 4:54
08 Wzgddrmtnwrdz 4:10
09 Am I the Dream or Am I the Dreamer 5:58
10 Dream Killer 2:49
11 The Circular Ruins in Euphio 2:12
≡ All tracks written by The Low Anthem excerpt 6, which written by Black Book.
Credits:
• Black Book Composer
• Michael Dates Artist
• Peter Glantz Creative Director
• Keith Heyward Artist
• Robert Houllahan Artist
• Arthur Kapp Artist
• Cat Laine Artist
• The Low Anthem Composer, Engineer
• Bob Ludwig Engineer
• Hieronymous Melchers Engineer
• Melissa Meyer Artist
• Manique Pixy Artist
• Brian Webb Engineer
• Dan Wood Artist
• Meredith Younger Artist Personnel: ★Ω★ Ben Knox Miller — lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
★Ω★ Jeff Prystowsky — drums, vocals, double bass (2006–present)
★Ω★ Florence Wallis — vocals, violin (2013–present)
★Ω★ Bryan Minto — “space harp”, electric guitar (2013–present)
★Ω★ Andy Davis — pianet (2013–present)
AllMusic Review by James Christopher Monger; Score: ***
≡ The transitional fourth studio outing from the Rhode Island–based indie folk collective led by co–founders Jeff Prystowsky and Ben Knox Miller, Eyeland is the culmination of a nearly five-year journey that began with Prystowsky purchasing and eventually turning Providence’s moth–eaten Columbus Theatre into a haven for artists and musicians via a popular recording studio and live concert hall. Lofty, eclectic, and spilling over with ideas, Eyeland effectively puts to bed the bucolic Americana of 2009’s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and the minimalist, Dylanesque troubadour–ism of 2011’s Smart Flesh. Instead, Low Anthem mine the surreal narrative and auditory proclivities of early–‘70s progressive rock and post–Kid A–era Radiohead, offering up a heady, psych–tinged conceptual piece that’s often as knotty and impenetrable as it is thrillingly inventive. Coming in at just under 45 minutes, Eyeland is awash in ambient sound effects, from chirping birds to churning, synth–fueled vistas, which results in its most stripped–down moments, like the breezy soft rock reverie “In the Air Hockey Fire” and the lovely “The Pepsi Moon,” delivering the most immediate thrills. Forays into jagged electro–psych–rock like “Her Little Cosmos” and “Ozzie,” the latter of which overuses tape speed manipulation to the point of wanting to skip past it altogether, buckle under the weight of their need for constant experimentation, trapping what sounds like a pair of terrific songs in a prison of murky, kitchen–sink excess. Still, Eyeland’s willingness to break the Dust Bowl minstrel mold is admirable, and it has enough moments that resonate to win back fans who may have drifted off to greener (or more sepia–toned) pastures during the band's long break from recording, but those listeners will have to be willing to sift through an awful lot of sonic detritus to find them.
Artist Biography by Andrew Leahey
≡♠≡ The Low Anthem’s unique brand of Americana makes room for gospel, folk, and blues, a blend that began taking shape in their hometown of Providence, RI. Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky — both students at Brown University, as well as late–night DJs at the school’s radio station — formed the Low Anthem in 2006, drawing upon their background as classical composers to help mold the group’s eclectic music. Jocie Adams joined one year later, and the group began widening its arsenal of instruments accordingly, utilizing everything from World War I pump organs to crotales in the process. After making its independent debut with 2007’s What the Crow Brings, the band rang in 2008 by temporarily relocating to Block Island — a remote location 12 miles off the Rhode Island coast — to record an album with producer Jesse Lauter. The stark, serene environment proved to be appropriate for the music, which the band initially self–released under the title Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.
≡♠≡ As their buzz continued to build, the Low Anthem signed a contract with Nonesuch Recordings and reissued Oh My God in 2009, supporting the release with a string of performances at summer festivals. Multi–instrumentalist Mat Davidson was added to the lineup later that year, joining the Low Anthem’s ranks one month before they headed to Central Falls, Rhode Island, to record a third album. Setting up a makeshift studio inside an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the group recorded Smart Flesh over a period of three months, making good use of the building’s cavernous, resonant spaces. The album was released in February 2011 via Bella Union. The following year saw the band provide the soundtrack for the American film Arcadia, and in 2013 they decamped, in true Low Anthem fashion, to an abandoned opera house to begin work on their much anticipated follow–up to Smart Flesh. The resulting Eyeland, an ambitious fever dream, abstract narrative–driven conceptual piece, was released by Washington Square Music in 2016. Website: http://www.lowanthem.com/
Also:
The Low Anthem’s Eyeland is a triumph of forward thinking.
By Ray Honeybourne / 02 JUNE 2016, 11:30 BST // SCORE: 8.5
≡♠≡ Echoes of Americana can provide quite a lot of sonic comfort food, but a distinctive soundscape, even one of the quality on Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and Smart Flesh, the first two albums by The Low Anthem, is rarely musically nutritious indefinitely. (Excerpt). ≡♠≡ http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/the-low-anthem-eyeland
Discography:
♠ 2006 The Low Anthem (Basement Project)
♠ 2007 What the Crow Brings (Audio & Video Labs, Inc. / The Low Anthem)
♠ 2009 Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch)
♠ 2011 Smart Flesh (Nonesuch)
♠ 2016 Eyeland (Washington Square)
≡♠≡______________________________________________________≡♠≡
| The Low Anthem |
| Eyeland (June 17, 2016) |
Formed: 2006 in Providence, RI, U.S.
Location: Providence, RI, United States
Album released: June 17, 2016
Genre: Folk, Country, Pop/Rock
Style: Alternative/Indie Rock, Americana, Indie Folk, Neo–Traditional Folk, Alt–Country, Alternative Pop/Rock
Record Label: Washington Square
Duration: 42:24
Tracks:
01 In Eyeland 4:45
02 Her Little Cosmos 2:54
03 The Pepsi Moon 3:45
04 Ozzie 3:27
05 Waved the Neon Seaweed 4:38
06 Behind the Airport Mirror 2:52
07 In the Air Hockey Fire 4:54
08 Wzgddrmtnwrdz 4:10
09 Am I the Dream or Am I the Dreamer 5:58
10 Dream Killer 2:49
11 The Circular Ruins in Euphio 2:12
≡ All tracks written by The Low Anthem excerpt 6, which written by Black Book.
Credits:
• Black Book Composer
• Michael Dates Artist
• Peter Glantz Creative Director
• Keith Heyward Artist
• Robert Houllahan Artist
• Arthur Kapp Artist
• Cat Laine Artist
• The Low Anthem Composer, Engineer
• Bob Ludwig Engineer
• Hieronymous Melchers Engineer
• Melissa Meyer Artist
• Manique Pixy Artist
• Brian Webb Engineer
• Dan Wood Artist
• Meredith Younger Artist Personnel: ★Ω★ Ben Knox Miller — lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
★Ω★ Jeff Prystowsky — drums, vocals, double bass (2006–present)
★Ω★ Florence Wallis — vocals, violin (2013–present)
★Ω★ Bryan Minto — “space harp”, electric guitar (2013–present)
★Ω★ Andy Davis — pianet (2013–present)
≡ The transitional fourth studio outing from the Rhode Island–based indie folk collective led by co–founders Jeff Prystowsky and Ben Knox Miller, Eyeland is the culmination of a nearly five-year journey that began with Prystowsky purchasing and eventually turning Providence’s moth–eaten Columbus Theatre into a haven for artists and musicians via a popular recording studio and live concert hall. Lofty, eclectic, and spilling over with ideas, Eyeland effectively puts to bed the bucolic Americana of 2009’s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and the minimalist, Dylanesque troubadour–ism of 2011’s Smart Flesh. Instead, Low Anthem mine the surreal narrative and auditory proclivities of early–‘70s progressive rock and post–Kid A–era Radiohead, offering up a heady, psych–tinged conceptual piece that’s often as knotty and impenetrable as it is thrillingly inventive. Coming in at just under 45 minutes, Eyeland is awash in ambient sound effects, from chirping birds to churning, synth–fueled vistas, which results in its most stripped–down moments, like the breezy soft rock reverie “In the Air Hockey Fire” and the lovely “The Pepsi Moon,” delivering the most immediate thrills. Forays into jagged electro–psych–rock like “Her Little Cosmos” and “Ozzie,” the latter of which overuses tape speed manipulation to the point of wanting to skip past it altogether, buckle under the weight of their need for constant experimentation, trapping what sounds like a pair of terrific songs in a prison of murky, kitchen–sink excess. Still, Eyeland’s willingness to break the Dust Bowl minstrel mold is admirable, and it has enough moments that resonate to win back fans who may have drifted off to greener (or more sepia–toned) pastures during the band's long break from recording, but those listeners will have to be willing to sift through an awful lot of sonic detritus to find them.
Artist Biography by Andrew Leahey
≡♠≡ The Low Anthem’s unique brand of Americana makes room for gospel, folk, and blues, a blend that began taking shape in their hometown of Providence, RI. Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky — both students at Brown University, as well as late–night DJs at the school’s radio station — formed the Low Anthem in 2006, drawing upon their background as classical composers to help mold the group’s eclectic music. Jocie Adams joined one year later, and the group began widening its arsenal of instruments accordingly, utilizing everything from World War I pump organs to crotales in the process. After making its independent debut with 2007’s What the Crow Brings, the band rang in 2008 by temporarily relocating to Block Island — a remote location 12 miles off the Rhode Island coast — to record an album with producer Jesse Lauter. The stark, serene environment proved to be appropriate for the music, which the band initially self–released under the title Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.
≡♠≡ As their buzz continued to build, the Low Anthem signed a contract with Nonesuch Recordings and reissued Oh My God in 2009, supporting the release with a string of performances at summer festivals. Multi–instrumentalist Mat Davidson was added to the lineup later that year, joining the Low Anthem’s ranks one month before they headed to Central Falls, Rhode Island, to record a third album. Setting up a makeshift studio inside an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the group recorded Smart Flesh over a period of three months, making good use of the building’s cavernous, resonant spaces. The album was released in February 2011 via Bella Union. The following year saw the band provide the soundtrack for the American film Arcadia, and in 2013 they decamped, in true Low Anthem fashion, to an abandoned opera house to begin work on their much anticipated follow–up to Smart Flesh. The resulting Eyeland, an ambitious fever dream, abstract narrative–driven conceptual piece, was released by Washington Square Music in 2016. Website: http://www.lowanthem.com/
Also:
The Low Anthem’s Eyeland is a triumph of forward thinking.
By Ray Honeybourne / 02 JUNE 2016, 11:30 BST // SCORE: 8.5
≡♠≡ Echoes of Americana can provide quite a lot of sonic comfort food, but a distinctive soundscape, even one of the quality on Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and Smart Flesh, the first two albums by The Low Anthem, is rarely musically nutritious indefinitely. (Excerpt). ≡♠≡ http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/the-low-anthem-eyeland
Discography:
♠ 2006 The Low Anthem (Basement Project)
♠ 2007 What the Crow Brings (Audio & Video Labs, Inc. / The Low Anthem)
♠ 2009 Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch)
♠ 2011 Smart Flesh (Nonesuch)
♠ 2016 Eyeland (Washington Square)
≡♠≡______________________________________________________≡♠≡