Akron/Family

Add Date: February 8 

Artist: Akron/Family 

Album: S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT 

Label: Dead Oceans 

Genre: Rock, psychedelic rock, folk 

Comments: A spectacular and gorgeous record from the "exasperatingly unknowable" band Akron/Family, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT sees the act--now a trio of Dana Janssen, Miles Seaton and Seth Olinsky, after Ryan Vanderhoof departed prior to the release of 2009's Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free--embracing crunching, progressive-influenced psychedelic rock, especially on tracks like "Another Sky," "Silly Bears" and "So It Goes." But that's not to say that they've abandoned the quiet, gorgeously orchestrated music that, on their early work, drew them comparisons to Devendra Banhart and the freak folk movement; there's still plenty of that here, such as early standout "Island" or the suite of songs that finish out the LP.

I don't imagine that too many bands could pull off the transition from guitar-rock jams to acid folk--late '60s/early '70s Pink Floyd comes to mind, and there's certainly a lot of Syd Barrett in this music--as seamlessly as Akron/Family, which wrote S/T II in a cabin on the side of the Japanese volcano Mount Meakan and recorded it in an abandoned train station in Detroit. Akron/Family move to their own beat, to be sure, and we get to enjoy the results.