Balmorhea - Stranger [V2]

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Balmorhea - Stranger
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Artist...............: Balmorhea
Album................: Stranger
Genre................: General Alternative Rock
Source...............: NMR
Year.................: 2012
Ripper...............: NMR
Codec................: LAME 3.98
Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality..............: CBR 192, (avg. bitrate: 192kbps)
Channels.............: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz
Tags.................: , ID3 v2.3
Information..........: http://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2012-09-28/balmorhea-stranger/
Included.............: NFO
Covers...............: Front

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Tracklisting
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1. Balmorhea - Days [08:47]
2. Balmorhea - Masollan [05:14]
3. Balmorhea - Fake Fealty [04:31]
4. Balmorhea - Dived [03:35]
5. Balmorhea - Jubi [04:58]
6. Balmorhea - Artifact [07:09]
7. Balmorhea - Shore [05:28]
8. Balmorhea - Pyrakantha [06:23]
9. Balmorhea - Islet [01:08]
10. Balmorhea - Pilgrim [06:48]

Playing Time.........: 54:05
Total Size...........: 73.98 MB

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Strange how distance can bring people together in new and profound ways.
Recorded over two years primarily at Tortoise's Soma Electronic Music Studios
in Chicago, Balmorhea's Stranger came into focus over great distances and
lengths of time, with multi-instrumentalist Michael Muller in Brooklyn and
guitarist/pianist Rob Lowe secluded in Alpine. The local ensemble was born to
constant transition, forever in search of a fleeting moment. From the
sketched intimacy of its eponymous debut in 2007 and youthful splendor of
2008's Rivers Arms, to the colonial expanse of 2009 breakthrough All Is Wild,
All Is Silent and the eerie, restrained tranquility of 2010's Constellations,
Balmorhea moves and morphs like weather patterns. Balmorhea's fifth studio
album marks a dramatic transformation in approach and temperament,
packing a visceral immediacy only teased with last year's Live at Sint-
Elisabethkerk. The compositions here are more self-contained and
complicated, with everything û swelling strings, wordless vocals, xylophone,
and steel drums û in its rightful place without sounding overly composed.
"Pyrakantha," meanwhile, bridges the band's past and present. A soft trance
of pensive guitars fades into a bed of static synthesizers, which then settles
into a guitar groove subtly propelled by the nuanced percussion of stellar
new addition Kendall Clark. Centerpiece "Artifact" uncovers an epic unto
itself, a three-part suite venturing into prog rock. Layers of guitar arpeggios
and rolling piano top circling guitar loops in a game of chutes and ladders
between Muller and Lowe that climaxes akin to Explosions in the Sky by the
way of Robert Fripp's The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior. With Stranger,
Balmorhea finally comes into full bloom. (CD release: Mohawk, Friday, Sept.
28.)
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