Music Blogs

Loquat's Secrets Of The Sea: Some bands are so easy to pigeonhole stylistically that they're practically toss-offs, bargain bin candidates interchangeable only for their hairdos and middle finger shout-outs. Hear today, gone tomorrow. San Francisco's Loquat (no, I don't know that means) inserts itself into the stylistic sweepstakes and comes up as fresh as morning dew. Rave reviews have likened the sextet to the Cardigans, Travis and Sarah McLachlan. Lead vocalist/guitarist Kylee Swenson is Loquat's not so secret weapon, her voice taking on a chameleon texture that makes everysong an Everysong on their fourth release, Secrets Of The Sea (Talking House Records).

Great singers typically make us want to sing along, identify with their joy and pain, but they also manage to disappear within the song, allowing us some measure of invisibility as we bop our head along to the beat. Swenson's cool, alluring and altogether transparent voice is like a human Theramin at times, rising and falling with the music, collected, detached, as invisible as the wind but just as compelling. In that way she recalls everyone from The Bird And The Bee's Inara George to Edie Brickell (particularly on "These Kinds of Friends"), her golden tones pulling our ears, her shimmering delivery maintaining a comfortable distance.

And while Loquat portends to be an "organic electronic" combo, tracks like "These Kinds of Friends," "Go Hibernate" and "Clearly Now" are as far from Dido and Portishead as steak from eggs. Loquat pursue perfect pop songcraft, adding grit and ethereal textures to their original blend.

Loquat's songs defy easy categorization. There is a touch of modern angst and contemporary reflection in Secrets of the Sea, but again, Swenson's vocals twist the message. Her clear-headed delivery in the rocking "In My Sleep" is both calming and unsettling, the acoustic-pining "Shaky Like The Flu" recalls a thousand ditzy singers from Melanie to The Shaggs, "Harder Fit" plies a freaky call to prayer with forlorn lyrics and a hummingly dark melody. Like survivors from the Titanic, Loquat projects a hundred souls through dreamily porous song craft.

Hauschka's Ferndorf: Hauschka's second album offers a progression over 2007's Room To Expand. Where the previous album comprised mostly solo recordings of Hauschka's "prepared" piano (with a few electronic and instrumental overdubs), Ferndorf is a more expansive work, with many tracks featuring a string duo, enabling an increased sturdiness.  While the recording still retains the pops and tics (as by-products) of the personalized internal workings of the piano - alongside electronic touches -- these are less central. The focus is on the melodic/rhythmic push/pull, and a development towards more orchestrated music and notated compositions.

"Freibad"