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Other Lives’ self-titled, full-length
debut was released on April 7th by tbd
records, the ATO Records imprint that launched a year
ago with the physical release of
Radiohead’s In Rainbows. The album (and the EP
that preceded it) was recorded in Los
Angeles with producer Joey Waronker (the Eels, Lisa Germano)
and engineer Darrell
Thorp (Radiohead, Outkast, Beck). Released in October
2008, the EP – also self-titled –
was featured for three consecutive weeks on iTunes’ “Rising
Stars of Indie Rock.”
Based in the college town of Stillwater,
Oklahoma, the band – Jesse Tabish (lead
vocals, piano, guitar, harmonium, organ, vibes, electric
harpsichord), Josh Onstott (bass,
melotron, backing vocals), Jonathon Mooney (piano, violin,
organ, vibes, electric
harpsichord), Jenny Hsu (cello, backing vocals) and Colby
Owens (drums, lap steel) –
has been playing music together for the past five years
in various incarnations. They
began as an avant-garde instrumental group, then added
vocals and eventually evolved
into Other Lives.
In a recent feature, Filter hailed
the band’s music
as “perfect for waking up on a
crisp fall Sunday or executing a heartrending breakup
in the middle of the night,” going
on to note: “If Other Lives was more formulaic
or eager to get rich, the five-piece would
be in N.Y. or L.A., gloating about impending global success.
But that’s not how things
are done in Stillwater, Oklahoma…” The landscape
informs their music, from the
traditional folk elements to the expansive, unhurried
nature of their songs. Yet Other
Lives owes as much to modern-day classicists such as
Jóhann Jóhannsson and Arvo Pärt
and British progressive rock as it does to its folk forefathers,
drawing from a rich palette
that even encompasses traditional Spanish music (“Matador”).
Balancing epic grandeur with quiet
restraint, the album evokes characters and
civilizations hovering between life and death, majesty
and melancholy, hope and despair.
“End Of The Year” is a breathtaking tightrope
walk between such extremes – a lilting
interplay between piano and cello gives way to more somber
tones, then comes full circle
six minutes in with a transcendent guitar riff over elegant
orchestration and drum corpsstyle
percussion. “Paper Cities,” featured as a
KCRW “Tune Of The Day,” is a powerful
indictment of nationalism, reminding us that the boundaries
drawn by war are temporal,
“just lines on a map,” while the cautionary “Don’t
Let Them” takes to task the powers
that be – and those who put them in power, namely
us.
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