Attn rockgeeks: this, Dallas Orbiter's self-titled album, is a killer for yer eyes, a killer for yer ears. First, dig the details of the packaging and note the attendant clues as to what this band's all about:
- Swank floppy-disc style packaging, as recently seen on releases from The Platonics and Enon. Evokes a bizarre nostalgia for the not-so-distant techno-past-an eye on yestershit with guitars tuned to the everlasting pop present.
- Super limited, individually hand-numbered copies in an edition of 300. CD-R celebrates inclusiveness, while the #'d deal slyly celebrates exclusiveness: A band that can appeal to the voxpop, yet still has lotsa buried goodies for the connoisseur. Instant collectors' item, scumbag!
- Visually pleasing enhanced CD containing music, footage of Grand Central, animation. Sharp, mildly triptastic, tech-savvy.
And? Clearly these guys know how to excite aesthetically and ideologically, how to get them eyebrows up even before the CD's in the stereo. Now the music:
Much like the packaging, the same knowing reverence for musics past, musics future, and boys-n-girls who can dig 'em both is at play. Dallas Orbiter has done its homework and draws from all over the rockmap, pickin', choosin', and synthesizin' to create this resultant slab of psych-pop/rock genius. Melodic and druggily chug-chugging, "Regards" is a tremendous opener that trumpets Dallas Orbiter's range from the get-go. The song leaps joyously from stylistic point 'A' to illogical stylistic point 'B' at will, from a noisier take on the patented AmAnSet narco-beat to a loopier Rollerskate Skinny-style chorus. The relatively sleepy lull that follows-the inconsequential "Glass Phantom" and dreamy "Hwy Sibilance"-lends the band's return to all-out guitar blat more power, as "Microscopic Man" and "Chandeliers, Scientists" sit on the sludgier, noisier side of the guitar-psych fence, recalling the more interesting moments of-don't laugh-latter day Tripping Daisy.
Feedback and distortion charge many of these tunes, but tagging Dallas Orbiter as A Guitar Band isn't necessarily fair. Instrumentally, there's a lot pouring out of the speakers-flute, keyboard crunch, percussive thock and tinkle, and theremin mix things up, and the group's always ready to throw a melodic, harmonic, or stylistic curveball. "On the Other Side (It's Cooler)" brings an unexpected though not unwelcome Beach Boys element to the album with its vocal harmonies and lyrical use of old Brian Wilson standbys "baby" and "sleep/dream." In these two minutes, Dallas Orbiter runs laps around what the High Llamas have been trying to pull off for over a decade. That astounding ease with influences and subsequent ability to transform them into something uniquely interesting oozes from every song here-beautiful.
So: Music for geeks... by geeks? Dunno for sure; no info-packed pics in the liners, but we'll let that one slip, because either way the boys in Dallas Orbiter are a buncha deft cookies who have gone far above and beyond the normal call of psychrock duty with this one. Applause, all around.
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