Phantom Buffalo - Cement Postcard With Owl Colors (2010)
No Portland indie-rock band playing today has been together longer than Phantom Buffalo. And a good argument can be made that none are better.
Strong evidence to back up that argument is being released this month: Cement Postcard With Owl Colours. Clocking in at close to an hour, Postcard is a surreal indie-rock masterwork.
Though it fits on one CD, Postcard is essentially Phantom Buffalo’s second double-album — the first being their 2002 debut, ShiShiMuMu, recorded when they were known as The Ponys. It’s probably not possible to top MuMu, but Postcard comes damn close.
It begins with a stunning two-song suite. “Listen to the Leaves” floats in on singer/guitarist Jonathan Balzano-Brookes’ falsetto ahs, setting the dreamy atmosphere that envelopes the entire disc. “Rest your head and don’t worry ’bout tomorrow,” he sings as the song touches ground. “You have spent quite a long time worrying and I think it’s time to stop.”
“Leaves” moves seamlessly into “Greenstar Botanical Airway,” seven minutes of psychedelia that builds into a sonic dust storm of swirling guitars and dizzying drums. This is headphone music of the highest order. Todd Hutchisen of The Baltic Sea, who created similarly deep and detailed aural landscapes on his band’s landmark Through Scenic Heights and Days Regrets, co-produced and mixed Postcard, which was recorded onto half-inch tape. The rich, yet relatively lo-fi, texture created by this method recalls the soundscapes of Mercury Rev, who recorded on 35mm magnetic tape in the 1990s.
“Bad Disease,” one of three songs on which guitarist Tim Burns sings lead, has a fantastic “intro” that comprises almost half the track. Like several other songs on Postcard, the sections of “Disease” could be songs themselves. (And one is: the album’s closer, “Goliath Tales,” offers a trippier take on a section of “Disease.”) “Trinket Shop” explicitly references this pastiche approach to songwriting, stitching together four distinct tunes along the way.
The midsection of “Frogman” has one of the catchiest hooks ever recorded in the Forest City. Among the shorter songs here, “Weather the Weather” stands out for its shimmering beauty, “Atleesta” for its jangly loveliness. “Ray Bardbury’s Bones” sounds like one of the best songs Simon & Garfunkel never recorded. Philip Willey — whose guitar, synth and piano add cool elements throughout the record — plays accordion on this track.
“Radio Signal” serves as the album’s big-rock outro. Fans who’ve seen Phantom Buffalo over the past couple years will recognize this song and most others on Postcard, which was recorded a year-and-a-half ago. (The band’s written almost another album’s worth of new material since then.) That doesn’t change the fact this is a momentous release. Phantom Buffalo is for real.
-- http://www.thebollard.com/bollard/?p=7729
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