Akron/Family - MeekWarrior

Fri 17th Nov, 2006 in Music Reviews

Akron/Family are a special case. The Brooklyn collective bring a sense of community to their music that often transcends or overshadows the group’s actual music output. Perhaps it is because the band members hide behind the Family moniker as far as identities go; the little we know is that Akron/Family is comprised of four young men from rural America who came to New York in 2002 to make music, these being lead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Ryan Vanderhoof, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Seth Olinsky, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Miles Seaton, and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Dana Janssen. And, I guess, the fifth member is YOU should you choose to take up the position.

The group’s 2005 self-titled debut certainly saw quite a few extra members added to the group as critical acclaim seemed to fall from the sky. But that album also saw Akron/Family lumped in with the freak-folk (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom) movement and – with its hopscotch feel and self-aware weirdness – it was kind of justified. But Meek Warrior well and truly sets Akron/Family apart from the pack without necessarily adding any astonishing development.

At seven songs and 35 minutes Meek Warrior was originally intended as an EP and from the scattershot quality of the offering one could argue that it should have stayed that way. Akron/Family revelled in qualities enlarged through quantity – it was one large, large experience; the Akron/Family experience. It teetered on the edge of excess but just when it appeared ready to take the unfortunate plunge it held back (witness the teasing relationship between Italy and I’ll Be on the Water if you have the means). This was dangerous but wasn’t it exciting! It wasn’t great as such but the potential for greatness was written all over it – the marriage of folk and electronics has been done before but rarely are walls of noise and sweet melodies so opposed yet complimentary.

When reviewing something that you feel sounds like no other it is perhaps best not to resort to the time-told band comparing method of criticism (you know, band X is like a wackier band Y befriending the zany band Z in a comatose battle over the History of Rock with band W). But on their latest release not only do Akron/Family sound like other bands, but they sound like other bands being self-indulgent – all by the end of the first track. Meek Warrior has been touted as more evocative of the Akron/Family live show than previous efforts, and I can imagine Blessing Force fitting in quite well. At nine and a half minutes it is perhaps the best example here of Akron/Family’s binding powers, but that may be due in part to the balance it owes to the past, just as much as their own ideas. Opening with tribal urgency the song dips into repetitive Animal Collective incantations, freeform jazz, psychedelic noodling, classic rock riffarama, and just about anything else that goes. In honesty it’s a bit of a tangled mess – albeit an engaging one – that at least provides such a contrast that leaves us seeking refuge in the next song, one of the album’s pleasant distractions, Gone Beyond.

Gone Beyond again deals in repetitive lyrics (“Gone, gone, gone beyond / Gone completely beyond”) but is limited, for the better, by a much more restricted musical palette. Indeed it is almost straightforward in its execution and extremely singalong-able. The song offers the necessary respite before the album’s undoubted centre-piece. It seems strange to say that about the title-track given that it is barely two minutes in length, but it is a rousing oddity; a simple, sweet folk ditty surrounded by over-bearing, mountainous, soundscapes. No Space in This Realm is the middle-ground. It is, like Meek Warrior, subtly out of place but at five minutes it is more indicative of the group’s tendency to expand, stretch and lengthen.

The rumour (although sadly unfounded) is that Akron/Family practice a made-up cultish religion called AK (“ack”) and if this is the case then I can imagine The Rider (Dolphin Song) being the soundtrack to some sort of cathartic ritual. A monster of a track, it succeeds where “Blessing Force” doesn’t quite through a greater attention to song structure and the impassioned screams of Let’s go! Let’s go which bring about chaos (in musical terms). The a cappella Love and Space closes out the album with another drastic and somewhat jarring change in direction. It’s nice enough but the album ends abruptly, especially remembering Akron/Family’s sustained class.

It is all too clear that for the great potential Akron/Family display, Meek Warrior confuses brevity for concision, needless tangents for diversity and, I’m sad to say, vague mysticism for spirituality and community. That said my main gripe is with this being considered an album. Letting the collection stand as an EP means the flaws can be largely excused based on experimentation or a need for expansion and as a transitory piece Meek Warrior works. Apparently the songs were written by individual members well before being brought to the table for final hashing. If I really the fifth member of Akron/Family I would suggest a rediscovery of family tradition: let there be no secrets and most of all let’s all pull in the same direction.