CARRY US ALL AWAY

While the early work of Lowercase Noises was promising and enjoyable, Andrew Othling's one-man band takes a huge step forward with the amazing "Carry Us All Away" for which I read one experienced post-rock blogger call the best release of 2010. I'm not knowledgeable enough about post-rock to make such a claim but I know a great album when I hear one. Othling hails from Albuquerque and handles all instruments and production on his own, with the exception of specials guests here and there. With this album he incurred significant costs in an attempt to push his work to the next level and the results show it.

While Othling excels at times in ambient and drone textures "Carry Us" is really not like that. This being the album that initially sucked me in, I was blown away at the amount of color, melody, and animation present here. When boiled down, these are simply great majestic rock songs sans vocals. A larger drum presence is brought into this one to propel the amazingly pastel guitar work of Othling and the equally beautiful cello of Shannon Harden, whose presence is far greater here, she plays on seven tracks this time out. While pieces have sections of serene pools they will often evolve into large, lumbering waves of exhilaration...nice walls of bass/drums/guitar in energetic fashion break the sections of introspection. Above all the mood and emotion remain balanced between a longing melancholy and hope. In the softer parts Othling's guitar again leads the way over the sparse keyboards, clean and intuitive to your melodic sense, colorful as mentioned, he is a wonderfully original player. He even brings in some banjo along with the cello background to further expand the sound. Lead vocals occur on only one track, and recorded spoken word audio is much less prevalent than on "Seafront." Start to finish this release is just a lovely example of post-rock coming out of its comfort zone to somewhere more engaging. It's also the perfect soundtrack for watching a sunrise or sunset.

This is the clear starting point for those who wish to discover this amazing artist. The album is available via CD or download at a very modest price, so please check out his website for details. The CD is worth the price for the glorious artwork of Terri Othling, the cover painting spreads out over all four panels of the digipak sleeve. One of the finest independent releases of 2010 also features one of the best album covers of the year, one which perfectly conveys the music you will find within.