KEEPAWAY
BLACK FLUTE

Bubbly, aromatic riffs, giddy vocals, and the occasional foray into Foley-level beat creation makes Keepaway's Black Flute the strangest, somehow captivating sonic journey of the year so far. The band earned some buzz with the perfect catchy fusion of electronic goof and indie swagger on "Yellow Wings," which was on just about every CMJ 2010 mixtape, but maintaining that delicate balance of synthetic and organic is no easy task, let alone for an entire LP. Luckily, the aged Keepaway has found a more suitable level of quirk, slowed down their pace a bit, and do their noises really well on Black Flute.

At once fluidly funky and awkward, the high-pitched refrains and 808 steel-drum beats give the whole thing a tropical feel. Although the songs tend to vary in texture, some of the production feels a bit thin, more like a bedroom pop project than a full studio recording flush with noise-- it's actually these moments that humanize the record, and make those freak-surf waves of strange synthetic mush accessible.