All Hour Cymbals (CD - 2007)

Additional personnel: Suckers, Ben P, Anton S, The Mystic Gaeltacht Singers (vocals); Pan (trumpet); David A. Miller (trombone, tuba); Louey Simon.

If most recent indie music is suggestive of a stylistic revisionism from the very recent past, Brooklyn outfit Yeasayer stretches far and wide to vast musical vistas--combining various pre-modern and pan-ethnic traditions into their own volatile brand of psychedelia. ALL HOUR CYMBALS, the band's debut release, hints at the spiritual possibilities of ritual music. Gospel-inflected chorales, chants, and whirling drones meld into powerful multi-part harmonies. But rather than succumb to cheap ethnocentric tropes, Yeasayer imparts a highly personalized aesthetic and symbology to their sonic omniverse.

A sense of existential dread and apprehension toward the hereafter characterizes vocalist Chris Keating's lyrics. On the Celtic-folk dub number "2080," Keating confesses, "I can't sleep when I think about the future I was born into." While interlocking polyrhythms and modal guitar create a dreamy tapestry of hazy psych-folk atmosphere, the chorus billows into a furious communal chant. But the album's luminous spiritualism is best represented on the opening track, "Sunrise." Tumbling tribal percussion and ominous organ drones create an unsettling atmosphere that eventually gives way to a transcendent, gospel-inflected vocal part. Reveling in music's transformative, cathartic power, Yeasayer have crafted a bold, astonishingly original take on anthemic rock. minimize