Midnight Moodswings 2014
The Surrogate Piano
Pittsburgh minimalists delve deep into the slumber to find some pleasures in the gloom.
Alternatively known as RADIO FOR THE DAYDREAMERS, this ensemble operate on the fringe of ambient, if traditionally styled, pop music, and never let electronics overshadow a natural timbre. True to its title, their second album indeed starts with a piano which is soon layered with a moonwalk guitar, so “The Elated” elevates the lightness that would crop up here and there in the overall darkness of what follows it. Vocal harmonies wording the mood and cello adding charm to the flow, there’s a velvet immersion into the unknown where, as sparse percussion warns, might lie monsters.
But the vibes-dusted Renaissance dance of “Only You Can Hurt” shifts the focus of fear inwards, whereas the accordion gives “My Infernal Monologues” a Gallic elegance, while “Trapped In Recurrence” pitches a chanting threat into its echoing groove, and the funereal mandolin turns “Interlude – The Patterns In Sleep” into a bittersweet experience. Still, “My Friend, The Surrogate” takes it to the ivories-lit chamber resonance before the unhurriedly urgent undercurrent of “Only You Can Heal” sets a hope in the acoustic heart of this night which the ring of “Everything Worth Waiting For” extends into the future. No surrogacy in this sincerity.
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