Radar Brothers - 'And The Surrounding Mountains' (Chemikal Underground)
4/5
By: Toby L
The Radar Brothers have been a consistent force over the past eight years in producing timelessly tuneful, masterfully epic and admirably tame, romantic country-tinged psychedelia. And, with the release of their third LP, 'And The Surrounding Mountains', the formula which made their name still seems to be omnipresent.
An opening 'You & The Father' reels you in within the typically Radar Bros. sumptuous variety of simple though utterly infectious guitar, engulfing strings and the customary gentle US vocal-croak. The 12-track record proceeds in a similar vein, and even bears two key themes throughout: family - as shown by song-titles including references to a 'father', 'Sisters' and 'Uncles' - and general nature (with mentions for lakes, camp-lights and mornings not going amiss).
The general variation within this record's pace is severely lacking, but those that view this as a criticism are misunderstanding its use: 'The World's Best Party Album, Volume 3,283' it is not. In terms of musical-content, however, you couldn't stumble across a more perplexing compilation of styles.
Yes, that eerie presence of Neil Young still lingers in the voices, 'This Xmas Eve' in particular attributing much of its warmth to the legend - albeit, apart from those moments when the instrumental-duties sound like a collision between a Spaniard's fiery summer and a Texan's, well, fiery summer, thanks to its peculiar chord-changes. The rest of the LP, meanwhile, hones in on delivering dreamy synths, rich acoustic-dosed melodies and emotionally sincere, occasionally affecting lyrics. And various animal-noises. However, the arguable musical-peak arrives in the beginning minute and twenty seconds of 'Mothers' - whose cascading guitars, introspective bass and memorable piano provide a fittingly beautiful listen.
It ain't all pretty, though; much of the material is experimental in a rather unexpected medium, with the intro to 'Still Evils' prompting you to ask if you're still hearing the same record or if, indeed, your CD-player has miraculously replaced it with Radiohead's 'Amnesiac'. Only a bewildering and quite-unlike-anything-else 'Mountains' can match the magical class.
In all, Radar Brothers have continued successfully to lay down their weary melancholia in the most enchanting of your possible play-backs for 2002. It's downbeat, yeah, intensely shy at times, sure, but completely arresting provided the right amount of time for aural exchange. As singer Jim Putnam sleekly croons to a waiter, 'Can you bring us another,' during 'On The Line', we, as the listeners, should definitely ask the same of the group for an additional instalment into their bewildering world of unique blues.
Artists in this article: Radar Brothers
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