posted 09/10/2008 (Wed) @ 07:00 pm

>>> Music Reviews

The American Dollar - A Memory Stream (2008)

Explosions At the Postal Service

cover art

  1. The Slow Wait Pt. 1
  2. The Slow Wait Pt. 2
  3. Call
  4. Bump
  5. Intermission
  6. Lights Dim
  7. Transcendence
  8. Our Hearts Are Read
  9. Anything You Synthesize
  10. We’re Hitting Everything
  11. Starscapes

The tranquil beauty of gads and gads of “post-rock” instrumental bands (Explosions in the Sky, Red Sparrowes, et al) mated tastefully with Postal Service-styled, bucolic electronica. Guitars with just enough grit float like silt in the stream of warm piano, keyboard and synth swells.

“The Slow Wait,” a duology, begins with “Pt. 1″’s laggard gear-turning. It’s several moments before a nautical synthesizer chord manages to break the silence. A descending piano theme develops, spiced with drums and languid acoustic guitar. “Pt. 2,” and to some degree the rest of the album, are essentially variations on a theme.

The theme is tree sap tempo electronica. Even the digital-spawned pieces of “A Memory Stream” sound profoundly organic in context, evoking the oft elusive feeling of desolate beauty, much sought-after by post-rockers everywhere—yet it is somehow the digital elements which humanize and ground listeners. Boredom doesn’t enter into the equation, as it might with so many other releases from other bands of the same persuasion. “A Memory Stream” is a record you put on when life feels like a hotel room in Lost in Translation.

The busiest tracks, for those so inclined, are probably “Transcendence,” “Starscapes,” and the latter half of “Our Hearts Are Read.” But don’t come in expecting Polysics caliber madness. This is more the robotic counterpart to F#A#(infinity).

Great for relaxation, ambience, writing. Add to the collection alongside similar-purposed records from Dirty Three, as well as all the aforementioned groups. Except the Polysics. Save them for when you’re high on Skittles and have decided that you don’t want paintings hanging on your walls anymore.

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Permalink | September 10th, 2008

2 comments on this article

  1. Three Star Smash » Blog Archive » Souvenir’s Young America - An Ocean Without Water (2007) Says:
    October 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am

    [...] and orchestrated for waiting-around-to-die music. The American Dollar’s A Memory Stream (reviewed here) is certainly mushier and more relaxing, but its quiet burbles of electronica deprive the music of [...]

  2. Three Star Smash » Blog Archive » God Is An Astronaut - God Is An Astronaut (2008) Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    [...] and grunge/clean dynamic shifts, like a softer, more conventional 65daysofstatic, or a more angular The American Dollar. Splashes of tabla and programmed sitar color the exotic “Zodiac,” while a tribalistic [...]

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