Parton Kooper Planetarium - 2011 - Glass and Bone

Quality: 3.75 out of 5

Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

I'm really have no idea where these folks are from, but I'm going to guess it's a desert. I've done my psychic detective work. The first track is called "In A Desert," which seemed like a possible tip off. Also you slowly realize that this is a blooze-infected shoegazer album as the psychedelic shards of desert sands wind-blast like glass though your bones. Anyway, this album is slightly spotty, but in that positive sort of way where the good stuff is really good, and you find yourself hoping that this will be a nostalgic prelude to something even better in the future.

The opener didn't quite hook me, but I found myself diggin' the almost gothic rock of "Future Unions" quite well. Then the band floors you a bit more with the full bore shoegaze blast of "Chew Off Your Foot," before cranking the amps to 11 for the title track, which recalls the completely deranged noise-pop of Astrobrite. "Patmos" and "Voyager" also rank well in the sweepstakes for the next rockin' pop hit on Neptune, and I do hope the band expands a bit on the strange, truncated sound worlds of "Gasoline" and "Abstraction" next time around.

This isn't the best album I've come across this year, but it's got enough that I'm looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future. The bedroom shoegazer has become a bit of a cliche (which I've admittedly fallen into on some of my own Glaze of Cathexis recordings), but this album has the meaty production and band interplay to take it somewhere a little different, and that's definitely worth your attention. They also include influences such as the blues and "More," "Meddle"-era Pink Floyd, which shoegazers typically avoid.

Head to their website for a free download:

Parton Kooper Planetarium - 2011 - Glass and Bone