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CD
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QS 174CD
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This is the second album from Düsseldorf-based Volker Bertelmann (Hauschka, Tonetraeger) and Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot, Mapstation), with vocals and lyrics by Scottish author Luke Sutherland (Long Fin Killie, Mogwai). Combining gentle seduction with high tension, Unwound from the Wood features mature electro-pop with subtle wind sections, guitar themes and sophisticated rhythms. These songs are admirably flexible, revealing R&B-style diary entries, shimmering instrumentals and trips that take us to the great pop songwriting-factories of the '60s. Looking at the old form from new angles is where the story of Music A.M. begins. Artifacts from dancefloors past pulse in warm color, yet the music is not entirely smooth and simple. Unwound from the Wood sees the band somersaulting towards the heartlands of pop, while delving deeper into the well of warped micro-rhythmic whimsy. Eleven songs teem with sparkling electronics, driving drum patterns, whirlpools of guitar and Rhodes, choirs beamed in from distant solar systems, all laid out on beds of the bluest bass and brass, accompanied by stories of love, loss, longing and libido.
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CD
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QS 163CD
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This is the second release from the London/Düsseldorf trio comprised of vocalist/guitarist Luke Sutherland (Long Fin Killie, Bows, Mogwai), programmer/keyboardist Volker Bertelmann (Tontraeger), and bassist/synth player Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot, Tarwater). Following last year's debut album A Heart and Two Stars (QS 154CD), Music A.M. continue to create cascading delicate sonorities over shuffling topographies. Slow countrified vibes, methadone doo-wop for disco misfits, swan songs for ex-swingers, are set alight by deep-blue bass chords, whispering whirlpools of guitar and burbling micro-funk. Even the surf licks and pop twists have a wistful and wintry abandonment. It features five songs originally recorded during the A Heart... sessions that have been recently reworked, suspended, and melodified by the band at their Düsseldorf studio, culminating in a blissful 20 minutes that highlights Music A.M.'s love and affinity for the in-between moments of avant-pop. While the arrangements and minimal rhythms create a mood assuredly warm and embracing, Luke Sutherland's vocals oscillate between earthbound narration and sparkling voyages into the spheres. This is the sound of summer receding. Music for a world in which all that's left is longing.
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LP
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QS 154LP
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LP version. Music AM = Luke Sutherland (Mogwai, Long Fine Killie); Volker Bertelmann (Tontraeger); Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot, Mapstation).
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CD
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QS 154CD
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Music AM = Luke Sutherland (Mogwai, Long Fine Killie); Volker Bertelmann (Tontraeger); Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot, Mapstation). "A textbook case of how a band might get together: what's conceived and desired from within, ensues without. Three individuals, three attitudes, three paths, influences, backgrounds and visions complimenting one another, composing then recording what transpires, meticulously organizing, talking, falling silent, selecting, ultimately realising the highest common denominator: Music A.M. And now their first album is here -- A Heart & Two Stars -- the title at once alluding, if you will, to the creative triumvirate, whose collective name in turn extols the early morning, itself a radiant metaphor for inception, something new, hope. Musically speaking, Music A.M. has carefully, almost bashfully woven diverse stylistic threads together: contemplative, ambient electronica, textures from country, folk and pop music, the structural ease of what is known as post-rock, and finally a synaestheticism, which I call 'data pop'. A Heart & Two Stars is cheered by its inherent wistfulness, anaesthetized by atmospheric calm and reserve, muddled by one's own nightly dreams which, when transported into daylight, become fantastic, comical everyday stories. Luke Sutherland sings as one who would be silent, whilst the instruments are played as though they were listening. Music A.M. does not purvey a torpid, pseudo-romantic, introspective indie-electronica, having discovered instead its own narrative mode, which, given the choice between the reference points Yesterday and Today, chooses Tomorrow as the beloved Present. Music, which my ears long to hear when, in the first light of day, my eyes behold something which makes me smile." -- Tobias Thomas
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