 |
MH-282 Holobody - Riverhood  Riverhood is the first release from Holobody, the sibling duo of Felix Green and Sea Oleena, two talented artists in their own right who’ve together crafted a masterpiece from elements of gospel, hip-hop, and electronically-propelled folk. Album opener “Unfold” is a sentimental soliloquy, and its seamless juxtaposition first into the playfully rapped “Hurricane Season” and then into the instrumental "Stomp Coda" sets the tone for the genre-hopping on the rest of Riverhood. Brother and sister trade vocal duties throughout the album. "Riverbed" is a beautiful hymn of death and rebirth with a chorus washed in reverb. Sounds seem to merge and collapse, until the listener paddles into the void and disappears. Other highlights are the hypnotically spiraling “Prelude” and the psychedelic closer “Acid Rain” with each song taking the album in a new and usually unexpected direction. Perhaps the most striking moment is the duo’s take on the traditional hymn “Down to the River and Pray,” which begins with reverent beauty before taking a sideways turn into percussive celebration and ambient experimentation. All of these pieces are drawn together on Riverhood into a whole that is lush, vibrant, and extraordinarily inviting. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reviews Summary |
| Holobody’s Riverhood is going to fit perfectly, right between your M83 and Tennis albums. - Potholes In My Blog / Highly recommended. - Paper / Listen if you like: Her Space Holiday, Stereolab, Atlas Sound, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Suicide, Mazzy Star, The Flaming Lips, Toro Y Moi, Beach House, Radiohead, The Stone Roses. - Eastern Surf |
| Reviews |
| Riverhood is the first studio release by brother/sister duo Holobody. It’s likely that they’ve been collaborating since childhood on tree forts and sand castles. Riverhood is well composed. Its tracks are like ten Russian dolls, each housing a smaller variation of the original. Another variation houses another variation, which finally houses something edible. And by edible, I mean audibly digestible. The deeper you let yourself slide into Riverhood’s fog-filled soundscape the less distracted you become by its genre bending and disproportionate halves. From indie pop, to spoken word, hip hop and electric loops–the dots are all well connected. Riverhood could easily exist as an instrumental album. Each track is so rich (instrumentally speaking) that the vocals are nearly foreshadowed by mountain upon mountain of digital loops, effects, sound bytes and beats. Holobody gives tracks room to breath with lengthy instrumental bridges and taffy stretched outros. The bass lines are heavy, expressive and head nodding. Simple acoustic string play accentuates the foggy electric accompaniment parceled throughout. It’s reminiscent of Beck or The Flaming Lips where a few simple acoustic guitar chords seem to escape the folk genre. Felix Green and Sea Oleena (Luke and Charlotte Loseth) explore vocal techniques, merging spoken word, harmonies and freestyle verses. Sea Oleena’s imagination is playful, lighthearted and odd. On the track “Hurricane Season” she spits, “…and no I’m not asleep in this impossible heat I’m on a balcony hallucinating lucid dreams….” She has a great talent for creating visuals. This album slowly burgeons into a something more definable; it’s a carousel of pop, complete with unicorns and flying elephants. Riverhood borrows from a variety of music backgrounds without creating something like Frankenstein’s monster. It tastefully borrows different elements so the ride is enjoyable and hardly distracting. Holobody does what more indie pop albums should do. They allow their instrumentals to explore entire tracks unfettered. These occurrences, while arguably filler, sound more genuine and less torpid than simply setting the synth to “loop.” Listen to the instrumental track “Procession”, but start at “Prelude”. Holobody builds up to an instrumental soundscape with a bit of lyric filler, rather than the other way around. The album wraps up with an ode to gospel, covering “Down To The River To Pray”. It’s the most simple song on the album, composed of vocal harmonies, simple guitar chords and a little low end string work. It’s a gospel equivalent to Jeff Buckley’s cover of “Hallelujah” and not as heart-wrenching but very uplifting. Holobody’s Riverhood is going to fit perfectly, right between your M83 and Tennis albums. As summer nears you’ll most likely become more acquainted with this bright, somewhat ethereal indie-pop super duo. At the very least, listen to “Down To The River To Pray”, because we could all use a little more gospel. - Potholes In My Blog |
