Trouble Books – United Colours of Trouble Books

Trouble Books have been self releasing albums, four of them in-fact, on their own label Bark and Hiss in their native Akron, Ohio but now the brand spanking new label My Inland Empire has come along to release this album in the UK and Europe.

You will have to get in quick for this one as there are only 100 records planned to be pressed, which will come with an accompanying CD-R and some drawings in a nice 8 page booklet.

Now on with the music Trouble Books have such a wonderful sound that reminds me of that fuzzy daydream feeling you get when you are just waking up. It’s like you are tired and still dreaming but the daylight is shining a bright and beautiful glow into your eyes.

They melt together fuzzy shoegaze pop sounds in a dreamy soundscape that echoes a lo-fi ambient found sounds project and an indie pop band. They are so DIY its adorable to quote their myspace, ’A band of happy accidents, inexperience, laziness, and a few pretty good ideas. We've made some recordings in our living room...’ and they did just that with United Colours Of… as it was all recorded on a half broken 8-track tape machine with overdubs made on a laptop. This home made sound comes across beautifully (I swear at one point I hear the pet cat have a little meow and a sleep, along with noises of pottering around the place) but this gives the album a really nice atmosphere of a natural, warm and organic place in which you want to live and love.

Keith and Linda sing together and intertwine beautifully over the hissing and fuzzed out found sound field recordings to make each song accessible and even poppy. They remind me of Bright Eyes at times like if he made Digital Ash in a Digital Urn a lot more laid back, organic and warm he may have touched on some of these ideas.

I say they are pop songs but they make short and fragmented pop songs like you have just dreamt the best part of a song you love and then it melts into the next through a passage of your mind into the next dream sequence.

I keep touching on how ambient this is; it reminds me of people like Gas and Jasper Leyland via the dreamy sections of bands like Grizzly Bear or some folksy people I can’t think of. The electronic squiggles and beds of sweet looped up drones back some delicate horn work and gently strum guitar sounds.

The furthest they get into a more abrasive sound is when they whip out some distortion and they come out sounding like a home made lost passage of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. The percussion is subtle and fleeting and used as more of an ambient flourish or as accenting rather than a steady pulse.

The only thing I can say is wrong with this album is that it’s short, coming in at about 30mins or so, this does however make me want to rewind it and start again. Trouble Books are addictive.

(Release 1st November)

http://www.myspace.com/barkandhiss

http://www.barkandhiss.com/

http://www.miemusic.co.uk/

NEW!

Pre-Order the album now: http://mie.bigcartel.com/

Get in quick there are only 100...