Ai Phoenix - The Driver Is Dead - review

Ai Phoenix’s album is slow, warm, and hypnotic. Those Scandinavian countries have been doing indie-pop way before we knew what it was here in America, and bands like Sigur Rós and the magnificent Office Building have built a bleak, beautiful landscape. Ai Phoenix brings that landscape to life. Songs like "We Think You Are Very Brave" starts off slow and repetitive, the kind of stuff that white Buddhists meditate to, until three minutes later, when it’s the hardest groove you’ve ever heard and you’re ripping your neck out headbanging to it. Singer Mona Mork’s crooning vocals are breathy and strong. Her f’s and s’s linger on the microphone, and we picture a speakeasy on the edge of a river, a1950’s silver-grill mic, fondled by Mork’s velvet-gloved hands. I swear I’m not being poetic. I’m just being swept away, and in the world of Ai Phoenix, it’s an okay thing to be. —


Matthue Roth
http://www.bayareabuzz.net

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