Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here

Cleveland ambient/drone trio Emeralds has moved on their third LP to a more melodic and meditative direction. The result is a warm and bright ambient-album which sonically approaches Harmonia, Brian Eno and on some of the longer cuts even Terry Riley and Tangerine Dream, as on the title track as well as 12 minute "Genetic". Emeralds' style of ambient sounds timeless, yet contemporary. Music is softly pulsating, yet does not need beats to convey movement. Sequencer rhythms co-exist and alternate with soft washes of synths. Synthesizer sound design is impeccable here and it often seems to suggest that if the rest of the so-called New Age music sounded as tasteful (or approached the slow hypnotic Riley esque trance as here) then the genre as such would not be as dismissible. Occasionally there is a bit of guitar, but whenever it plays anything that could be considered as a solo, it is melodic and unhurried. One of the finest works of ambient music this year.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffity - Before Today

LA eccentric Ariel Pink’s previous LPs Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest were notable for its distinctive lo-fi sheen. As if Pink would’ve taken 60s garage-rock, psychedelia and 70s MOR pop, while playing them through the radio that only plays rather muddy and obscured frequencies. Even though released during 2004-2006, all three albums contained music recorded from late nineties to 2003. In reality, the 2005’s award-winning Worn Copy was merely a re-release via Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks label of an album initially unleashed two years prior. Thus, Ariel Pink’s situation was such that his ground-breaking lo-fi psychedelia was on record dated to him by about five years.

Meanwhile Ariel Pink, having played almost everything himself on records, assembled a backing band. And went on tour. Then started recording new songs. While the attentive listeners were busy wondering whether or not Ariel Pink could ever record a professional sounding album. And even if he does deliver an LP completely devoid of his lo-fi mystique, would he have the same impact without his deliberately poor sound?

Before Today, Pink’s first album with his backup band and sans lo-fi aesthetics, serves to give answers to these questions. One could presume that Ariel Pink’s distinctive 70s soft-rock perversion owes its sharpness and impact due to the deliberately muddy sonics. But what if that kind of material was recorded „as it should be“, would it then show the emperor naked?

Emperor Pink, however, is clad. Best lo-fi acts have always distinguished themselves from others by elements outside the basement sound. And talent. Pink’s melodic flair for songcraft is just as underrated as that of his mentor R.Stevie Moore. Earlier tunes such as „For Kate I Wait“ and „Hardcore Pops are Fun“ left no room for doubt that Ariel Pink is capable of crafting hummable tunes. Pink and comrades are generous with melodic gold even on this album.

And goes without saying that one should not overlook Ariel Pink’s perverse with and (self)irony that is evident in his song titles and lyrics. His soft-rock opuses even here go beyond the level of pure ear-candy – „Round and Round“ is just the kind of AOR anthem that is actually more in line with the aesthetics of Frank Zappa’s Sheik Yerbouti album while „Beverly Kills“ is sophisti-synth-pop performed with a sarcastic grin on face, while being deceptively accessible, is nonetheless pretty elaborately constructed. „Can’t Hear My Eyes“ is the perfect pop tune that nonetheless belies Pink’s attitude that is incompatible with mainstream pop as such.

Generous with (self)irony on one hand and wildly eclectic – from garage rock to punk/grunge to soft-rock, while dropping references from the Beatles (as on „L’Estat“) to JM Jarre (as on the moody synth-instrumental „Reminiscences“) - Before Today indicates that Ariel Pink is a genuine post-modernist eccentric. Thus, he has not lost his edge despite cleaning his sound a bit. He has, however, delivered his poppiest and most concise LP to date.

Original review appeared in Estonian on June 2010 at the Postimees journal as an Album of the Week review.