ALOHA
'Some Echoes'
Polyvinyl Records
Ever heard the phrase, "We mock what we don't understand?" It seems to be the curse of Aloha, a band teetering somewhere between indie rock and prog, arriving on the scene just as the final salvos of emo were being fired onto the masses. Hailing from the same label as Braid, Aloha unfortunately became tagged as a progenitor of their own brand of prog-emo, and no one in their right mind seemed willing to give that a chance. Labels, who need them? It's not essential to label a band in order to understand them. And Aloha has taught that lesson well throughout their six record career with Polyvinyl.
'Some Echoes' finds Aloha exploring the spaces between early Yes, late Sunny Day Real Estate and midday atmosphere. The album was recorded between a farm house in Pennsylvania and the influential halls of D.C., and the dichotomy created between the two opposing forces lends itself well to Aloha's brand of song writing. There's a tendency and influence to work within the confines of traditional prog music (but not in a bad way), intermingled with the freedom allowed by the absence of influence in a rural farm house in PA. And at times, there's an urgency in Aloha (as heard on 'Big Morning') while other times, they seem content to spend six minutes allowing their music to breath (as heard on 'Come Home').
So what did we learn here? Labels are bad, take time to understand that which confuses you, and if progressive, experimental pop music that's not afraid to explore the many faces of influence and originality is your thing, then take the time to enjoy 'Some Echoes' and Aloha in general for that matter....
FREE MP3 : Download a track from 'Some Echoes'
