Albums by this artist

Know By Heart (2001)

The Golden Band (1999)

American Analog Set

The Golden Band

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» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

American Analog Set The Golden Band Emperor Jones, 1999 RiYL: Codeine, Bedhead, Palace/Will Oldham

The Golden Band reflects an impasse for Austin, Tx.'s American Analog Set, with the band pulled in two directions: the slow-motion, graceful pop songs of its two albums on one hand, and on the other, the minimalist textures of the Late One Sunday & The Following EP's "Late One Sunday," which many consider their masterpiece.

The resulting sound can be best described as "drifting", with a tendency towards more trance-oriented and spacy ambience. The trademark of pop songs such as "A Schoolboy's Charm" and "The Wait" remains their subtlety, the carefully crafted uselessness of potentially inviting riffs and melodies, the quiet and intense phrasing.

Sabotaging their own melodies and riffs before they can acquire rock's stereotypical excitement has always been the the group's ultimate reason for being, a sort of peaceful self-destruction that may be inspired by Eastern religions.

The style excels in the 10-minute instrumental "New Drifters I," a piece for piano, bass and drums which, consciously or not, mimics the structure of the classical sonata in four movements. Elsewhere, vibes and electronics transform "The Golden Band" into a small requiem, while "It's All About Us" basically summarizes the music on the group's first two albums.

That the instrumental tracks rule attests that Andrew Kenny's limited vocal skills are rapidly becoming the band's weakness. Overall, The Golden Band is a disappointment.

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.