Native Gold - A Man We All Admire EP Album Review
Native Gold
  • 4/5
Reviewed by Jen Dan

Electronic post-rock duo Native Gold releases an absorbing and edgily storming EP.

Michael Weeks and Lee Young of the electronic rock/alternative rock act Native Gold reside in Los Angeles, but their absorbing and edgily storming post-rock soundscapes are from another, more alien realm – that of the tumultuous terrain of the psyche.  The duo is slated to unveil its debut EP, A Man We All Admire, on July 5th.  The EP’s three tracks are charged with fiery to enveloping instrumentation, gritty, restless rhythms, and a delicate balance between dissonance and melody.

Weeks and Young are originally from Ohio, but the longtime friends and musical collaborators migrated to L.A. with the intention of creating involving music that transports the listener away from the everyday.  Lead single “Fickle” is a lament that starts off with skittering percussion, a grinding sound that builds up and backs off in intensity, and off-kilter, twisting electronic notes.  The male vocals curve along with the warp of the music, yearning with regret, gently intoning with a rueful turn of phrase, “You / Fickle and you know it / You blew it…”  The track recalls the tamped down and sustained anxiety of many a Radiohead number, from the drawn out malaise of the singer’s bittersweet vocal delivery to the disconcerting sonic mood that is evocative of isolation and dissociation.

EP-opener “Fake the Smile” says it all with its title – that of putting up a false front which hides the true person inside.  The tune slowly bends around the corners and lurks along the corridors, ramping up with a sharp frisson before petering out into spare piano strikes.  The interlude is brief, however, and soon various distorted and staticky sounds flit around the resounding piano notes, from little, crisp clacks to fast runs of electro-notes.  All the while, the singer delivers his lines in a deceptively calm manner, declaring with a hypnotic repetition, “When it feels right / it’s right / When it feels wrong / it’s wrong / It’s true and you know you know.”

A Man We All Admire finishes off in epic style with the Muse-like drama and Radioheadesque unfurling ambience of “Begun to Begin”.  The singer’s words are somewhat obscured in the mix as he airily ruminates what sounds like, “Two steps ahead / five leaps behind / …coming to find out / begun to begin.”  He’s backed by a shadowy, shifting wall of low-tone buzzing noise, slowly arching, bright lines, and later, the weighty pace of detuned guitar jags and reverberating metallic taps.  The song pushes forward with a deliberate momentum, then stops occasionally with a short lull before starting up again.   Subtle horn lines and a sprinkle of tinkling chimes sporadically join the unsettled milieu.  By song’s end, the churning miasma of squalling guitar lines, deeper electronic notes, pronounced drums, and burnished cymbal clangs is capped with the singer’s softly subdued, barely decipherable vocals that mirror the mystery and intangible nature of the human mind.

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