the echo and echoplex

French Kicks || Listen

Like the rest of the French Kicks, lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Nick Stumpf is a talented musician and craftsmen. But its in his role as a drummer that Stumpf keeps the group’s new album, Swimming, on the right side of the atmospheric-pop/way-too-mellow divide. On the New York group’s fourth record, they’ve developing an appealing platter of harmony-heavy Sunday-morning-brunch pop, but its Stumpf’s booming beats that gives the set the energetic dose of Saturday-night mischief necessary to keep things moving.

On the song “Carried Away” guitarist Josh Wise sings, “I was carried away/ but I can’t really say what for,” over a gently plucked guitar arpeggio and stomping bass drum. And it’s hard to believe him. Nearly every moment on the self-produced and -mixed Swimming is so precisely arranged, from the overwhelming lush sheets of harmonies to the ghostly piano riffs to the expertly deployed guitar riffs, that it’s difficult to believe the group leaves much to chance.

Overall, that isn’t a bad thing. Ringing guitar, hand-claps and polite-but-resolute drumming are mixed in perfect proportion on “Abandon,” and “This Could Go Wrong” belies its title with layered, wavy guitar lines expertly bouncing off a rumbling, invigorating beat. - CMJ

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The Weather Underground || Listen
Roll The Tanks

8:3opm / $13adv, $15dos / 18+