Thursday, April 19, 2012

New Dream-Pop/Folk Discovery - Carrousel: 27 Rue De Mi'chelle, out May 1


Fronted by Joel Piedt, and featuring Rob Polischuck, Malee Bringardner, Patrick Chin, Erich von Hinken, and Landon Lee, Florida-based dream-pop/folk outfit Carrousel have spent 2-1/2 years working on their debut, 27 Rue De Mi'chelle, and for all that, it does not have an "overworked" feel. To the contrary, it flows nicely and reveals itself nicely upon repeated listening.

Piedt says they were inspired by Brian Wilson and, while a lot of pastiche-pop artists make that claim, I think the quality of this release bears out that statement. It's extremely well-made and pretty complex in terms of song structure, but like all good pop music, it's also extremely listenable. Simply put, there are some really beautiful songs on this record.

Check out a couple of the songs, available from the band for download. Here's "14", which starts acoustic and builds into nearly a dream-pop wall of sound behind Piedt's winsome vocals. And here's "Where Do We Go From Here?", for which the oft-used term "symphonic" is perfectly apt.


And here's a treat from the band, two alternate versions and the finished product of the video for the song "14". The video features a concept that has never been done before: one side of the screen backwards (as a performance) and one forward.

Reverse side:



Forward side:



Finished video:



I'm impressed with the scope of the undertaking, but even more with the quality of the music.

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