Beach Sloth

Andrew Danso – f i n d 8.1

                Andrew Danso is deceptively simple. Upon the first listen it sounds akin to Tarwater, To Rococo Rot and similar bands. Beyond these obvious influences are less clear ones. Post-Rock informs much of what is done on here. From the usage of field recordings, hiss, and complicated interplay to the unusual structure of the songs themselves this album explores whatever it feels like when it feels like it. Vocals here only confirm the general strangeness of what is going on. Debts to weirder forms can be seen in some of the tracks, particularly Gastr Del Sol’s unclassifiable style. 

                ‘Walk Walk Sunshine’ appears almost country-ish in nature. The singer is obscured by voice modulation. From there Andrew Danso get weirder with ‘Liar MD’ that cuts in and out of the song without warning. It is reminiscent of Slint’s early work on Tweez. Many of these songs take rather short periods of time to make things unstable. A few appear willing to simply crash into oblivion. ‘Radial Day’ is a case in point. One of the real treats of the album comes with ‘Find’ which brings together the best of the song-based and the electronic-effects laden work. Here it remains extremely tense. A structure does emerge but it takes a long period of time to fully articulate itself. 

                This is a hard to define album. Parts of it hark back to more traditional rock structures, particularly Post-Rock and some country influences. Much of it deliberately muddies the sound with electronic repetition, feedback, backwards loops and other details. It is hard to grasp upon the first listen. Spend time with this one.