Lost Tracks: High Places - "High Places"
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HIGH PLACES
High Places
High Places hail from Brooklyn, but sound more like a twee-pop troupe lost in the rain forest. The duo's self-titled debut comes cloaked in a blurry, globe-trotting haze that feels as futuristic as the performers are naturalistic -- the music's electronic pulse frequently evoking bird calls, chattering cicadas and the sound of mysterious goop drip-drip-dripping from stalactites onto ancient cave floors.
Instrumentalist Rob Barber has much to do with that, subverting the precision of so much electronic music into a charming mess of sound. On "Namer" he dishes up a funny slice of Amazon techno, its shaky pulse adorned with clattering samples of bamboo wind chimes.
Singer Mary Pearson provides the singsongy counterpoint, cooing in an often unintelligible, deadpan chirp. The two blend beautifully on "The Storm," a song where Pearson recounts an afternoon of tree-climbing over stuttering samples of tabla, sitar and . . . what sounds like a bag of coins.
These backing tracks are fascinating, but oddly, it's Pearson's echo-drenched mumbles that hold the tunes together. Inviting and familiar, her vocalizations resemble the Waitresses one minute and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" the next. Over the electric chatter of "From Stardust to Sentience," she ponders the origins of life: "Out in the desert your thoughts are clear as stars/You feel golden, you're billion-year-old carbon." It's a gorgeous lyric, but you'll have to squint your ears to pull her words from such an enchanting sonic fog.
-- Chris Richards
DOWNLOAD THESE: "From Stardust to Sentience," "The Storm," "Namer"
