Among the hoards of synthesizer revivalists and worshipers, there's a handful that are novel enough to concoct a well-versed mixture of archaic and modern sounds and stand out among the rest. The list only consists of a select few, including Emeralds, Caboladies, and Brother Raven-- the Seattle duo of Jamie Potter and Jason E. Anderson. Though Diving Into The Pineapple Portal was released this year, their only proper album of recent works would be the Digitalis LP VSS-30; Diving Into The Pineapple Portal is the Aguirre Records reissue of Brother Raven's debut cassette release on Jason E. Anderson's Gift Tapes imprint from early last year.
To cut the history lesson short, the four pieces contained on this effort take the new age/komische formula and completely deconstruct it to a formless arrangement. The sounds that we once scoffed at and made punchlines out of are put into a breathtaking new context thanks to the spontaneous musical interaction between Potter and Anderson. Synthesizers are the driving force of these excursions, however tapes and effects are used too, which render the loops shaky and wobbly, infrequently altering their pitch. Brother Raven give credit to a long-gone era of music within the warm stupor of analog equipment and yet propose music that could have only been made in a contemporary time.
At a concise 30 minutes, Brother Raven produce the cream of synth worship's crop without crossing the threshold of overindulgence. Sequenced melodies are uttered in shape-shifting tempos as subtler tones and phrases gradually introduce themselves on the title track, and the closer "Happy Astronaut" features a ramshackle pattern of percussive keys further accentuated by a bass hum that circulates throughout the left and right channels. Diving Into The Pineapple Portal is a mind-altering yet tranquil experience (with a bonus cassette to boot) that will float any Cluster frequenter's sea canoe.
[Brother Raven Myspace]
[Buy Diving Into The Pineapple Portal from Aguirre Records]
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