Mar 18th, 2010 · The Los Angeles band's sound synthesizes vocal harmonies influenced by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (or the more contemporary Fleet Foxes) with the reverberant rhythms of Afrobeat, indie rock and chamber pop. Local Natives performed at NPR Music's daytime party in Austin, Texas, on March 18.
Mar 11th, 2010 · "Albatross" finds Olga Goreas singing sweetly while accompanied by insular, shoegaze-tinged fuzz. Yet as the song cakes on layer upon layer of glorious harmonies, overblown guitars, swirling feedback and the propulsive thunder of drums, "Albatross" begins to buckle like a collapsing star.
Mar 10th, 2010 · "If all that grows starts to fade, starts to falter / Oh, let me inside, let me inside not to wake," Midlake's Tim Smith sings in "Acts of Man," which surrounds his meditation on man and nature with dense harmonies and the rich sounds of a folk-pop orchestra.
Feb 24th, 2010 · Fire in My Bones: Raw, Rare and Otherworldly African-American Gospel is a new 3-CD set that explores the diversity of postwar gospel music. Across 80 songs spanning six decades, the collection ranges from scratchy field recordings to intricate vocal harmonies to snappy adaptations of rock 'n' roll rhythms.
Feb 23rd, 2010 · The one-man band's best song is also its most melodically complex: "You'll See It" is a layered blast of staccato synths, interwoven strings, strutting beats and intricate vocal harmonies. But in spite of its intricacies, Washed Out reveals an uncanny knack for writing melodies that stick. (That synthesizer riff in the chorus is particularly killer.)
Feb 21st, 2010 · The music of the West London band Mumford and Sons features banjos and mandolins that conjure images of American folk. The group's rich harmonies have even drawn comparisons to Crosby, Stills and Nash, but members Marcus Mumford and Ben Lovett say that that's only part of a large cast of influences.
Feb 18th, 2010 · The dark sounds of The Courage of Others didn't come to Midlake easily: The band spent a year writing and scrapping new material before it even began to work on the songs that would make up the new album. The result sounds isolated and withdrawn without devolving into desolation: A glimmer of optimism takes shape in the layered harmonies and intricately arranged guitars. Hear a World Cafe session.
Feb 18th, 2010 · Making eiderdown-plush folk-pop songs buoyed by sweet harmonies, the Norwegian duo takes a surprisingly bold political stance on its recent album Declaration of Dependence. As its members' voices met in perfect confluence at WFUV, accompanied only by acoustic guitar, those in Studio-A quickly went from casual fans to happy acolytes.