ARTICLES
Listening Post: E. Honig
Label Profile: Ad Noiseam

ALBUMS
Leo Abrahams
Ammoncontact
Anka
Lloyd Barrett
Beach House
Bibio
Christina Carter
Davis & Jerman
Ecstatic Sunshine
Ensemble
Fluorescent Grey
Freiband
[guÿôm]
Chris Herbert
Home Video
Larvae
Lullabye Arkestra
Mathieu / Schaefer
MONO & w. end girlfriend
My Robot Friend
Nicolay
Pieter Nooten
Nuccini
Obfusc
Objekt4
Over the Atlantic
Para One
Proem
Red Sparowes
The Remote
Root 70
Florencia Ruiz
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Alan Sparhawk
Andy Stott
Thumbtack Smoothie
Tortoise
Triosk
Vlor

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Ad Noiseam 2001-2006
Another Generic Sampler
Bip-Hop Generation 8
Diary of a Sweet Day
Idea Hoard Uncut
Innature
Morrow Choral Orchestra
Noise Factory Vol. 3
Squadron 2
Warp Works

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Alias & Tarsier
Audion
Caroline
Home Video
Iz & Diz
Sami Koivikko
Mai
Mathhead
Monomachine
Narcotic Syntax
Quinoline Yellow
Sigur Rós
Samartzis & English
Samartzis & Inada
Andy Vaz
Andy Vaz Remixes
Waterprotection

Over the Atlantic: Junica
Carpark

Previously issued on Bevan Smith's Involve Records label and now on Carpark (which released Smith's Low Light Dreams and The New Face Of Smiling under his Signer guise), Junica is a ten-song collection of bedroom-styled, laptop-electric guitar indie-pop fashioned by Smith and Nik Brinkman under the name Over the Atlantic. The duo sweetens its gentle, sometimes glorious dream-pop with swooning vocals (“Jess,” “Honest Words”) and roughens it up with loud guitar stabs (“Heart Land”), the latter an especially wise move since the heavy guitar dimension militates against the material sounding excessively twee. Sometimes the concept is pushed to an even greater extreme, as when molten guitar spreads like lava over the otherwise clean pop structures of “France,” incinerating it in the process.

It doesn't surprise that traces of The Postal Service can be detected in the vocals and melodies of “35 Black And White” but Over the Atlantic's sound ranges further. In fact, on tunes like “Glass Breaks,” Junica's somewhat nasal vocal style has more in common with The Mobius Band's Ben Sterling than Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard. A Beach Boys influence sometimes emerges in the material's vocal harmonies and counterpoint while shoegaze roar lights a fire under songs like “I Cannot Believe” and, yes, “Kevin Shields.” All of the album's songs are pop-song length except for the closer “Fly to the States,” an epic by comparison at nine-minutes. The duo makes the most of the opportunity, however, by gradually escalating the intensity to a ferociously burning pitch. Junica is a decent enough batch of pop songs though it's not in the same league as Give Up or James Figurine's recent Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake. Furthermore, Over the Atlantic's ‘band' sound is weakened by the programmed beats which are serviceable but generally static; consider how much more vital the The Mobius Band's live drumming sounds by comparison.

October 2006