Hardcore Pops Are Fun: New-Weird America #1

OUR BROTHER THE NATIVE (Fat Cat Records)

I felt in love with Our Brother the Native in 2005, when I had the luck to listen to their homemade EP “Cheer up my Dear, the Sun Will Shine Again”. A lysergic experience in a Native American's banquet with hallucinatory mushrooms and roots, located in a suburban psych-dream and disturbed by a tuning radio jamming cerebral transmissions. I think songs like “He Stood and Took Root” and “Old Oak Tree” are a masterpiece of the underground scene.

It was not a surprise to me they captured the attention of Fat Cat Records (label of such bands like Animal Collective and Sigur Ròs) that stumbled upon them thanks to Myspace and released their debut LP “Tooth and Claw” in the summer 2006. It absolutely confirmed my expectations about their pure talent. What impressed me most was the incredible music awareness for such young guys, ('86 John-Michael Foss, '88 Chaz Knapp, '89 Joshua Bertram) and their fresh gusto for experimentation, like searching out samples of interesting sounds they could find in the house, as well as AM radio signals/static or circuit-bent toys and running the noise through effects.

Their follow up LP "Make Amends for We are Merely Vessels" released in February 2008, marked a changing, from the rural freak-folk landscapes on the likes of Cocorosie to dense weave of layered sounds and slow building dynamics recalling the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

A five-track digital EP, "Parting Marrows", was released in October 2008 and is more immediate than previous records - dyed by shorter, summer-tinged compositions that are timeless, earnest and full of hope.

New LP, "Sacred Psalms", released in May 2009, is their most mature record that sees the band's combined influences simultaneously increase tenfold and be transcended by their ingenuity and intent.

The approach to Our Brother the Native may not be so immediate as much as it happened to me, but a tour in their universe is surely worth it.