Sometimes More is More

It’s rare that I find a new album where most of the tracks are listenable, but this is a blessed exception. How many times can one play a disc before he just has to walk away and say, enough? It’s a good thing music doesn’t have any calories or fat.

Lowercase Noises is Andrew Othling, and Carry Us All Away is a self-produced album with all songs written, produced and recorded by Othling. This is ambient rock reminiscent of Lanterna, Explosions in the Sky, and rock guitar master Eric Johnson. Othling’s main ax is guitar, but he also plays banjo, keyboards and does drum and bass programming. Guest players Shannon Harden (cello), Josh Gaines (vocals), and Jenny Othling (vocals and oboe) add angelic touches to many of the tracks.

A short and gentle introduction comes with “Shaking the Dust (Airfields)” and its
soft vocalizations, sustained drones, cello, jangly and canyon-filling reverberated guitar and light keyboard gently introduce a set of four movements. These four tracks are variations on a theme that segue seamlessly into each following track. Drum and bass and big guitars send us crashing into track two, “Shaking the Dust (Skyscrapers)” with dramatic effect as if to say, wake up, this is just the beginning.

The theme continues to develop with rich textures and short, slow melodic phrases being inserted and extracted elegantly, as we move into movements “Like a Firefly (Love)” and then “Like a Firefly (War)” where strings and oboe contrast with layers of guitars and crashing cymbals. Othling has created a symphonic wall of music, dominated by driving guitar rhythms and picked guitar. Somehow, for me, it’s never too much. There are so many styles, slides, swells, chunky distorted rhythms and textures that it’s hard to believe all the guitar work is done by one person. This is his voice and he has mastered it brilliantly.

“I want to Live Again” is the lone lyrical song with its refrain, “Carry us all away.” Sung by Josh Caines, it includes sweet instrumentation of reverberating guitar swells, banjo, and cello. The final track “The Highway Shall Be There” ends the album as gently as it began. There are a total of 12 tracks in this collection.

At the band website (see sidebar) you are given many ways to purchase. Grab the digital download album at his suggested price or name your own. I ordered the CD which included the digital album and gorgeous CD artwork with vibrant, saturated colors by Terri Othling for $12.00. Quite a deal. You can also download individual songs and his other albums are very reasonably priced. There is a lot of music on Carry Us All Away and well worth the price. I say, give it up for Andrew Othling and Lowercase Noises!