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Artist
The Quiet Americans
12+ albums
United States
about
http://www.myspace.com/thequietamericansuk The wobbly uncertainty of a medium-fidelity, secondhand tape deck brings out the best in Fresno noise pop band The Quiet Americans on Medicine, their debut release. The band recorded the six-song EP on a Tascam 388 reel-to-reel recorder and mixer unit that singer/songwriter Luke Giffen bought from a friend of a friend for a hundred bucks. The 1980s era machine, still popular among self-recorded garage rock bands and analog purists, adds a fuzzy time-machine quality to Medicine that Giffen and company employ to great effect. “Be Alone” opens the EP with a gloss of guitar noise that feels a little warped and out of tune before drummer Eli Reyes powers the song forward. (Giffen and Reyes are the group’s main players; Simon Smeds, Steve Loveless, and Eric Peters join the live lineup now and again.) The second track and single, “Selia,” sounds like a hazy summer dream — the ooh’s and ahh’s of the chorus melt into a wash of organ swirl, cymbal smash, and Princeton reverb. The album’s middle selections would make a fitting soundtrack to a shoegaze sock hop alongside bands like The Raveonettes, Moon Duo, or any current Slumberland Records act. The closer, “Weird Mountain,” is the album’s standout. It shows a split personality, chugging along from the opening riff before guitar noise obliterates the hook and takes over the song. Each of the tracks on Medicine illustrates this quality: The vocals become just another instrument in the mix, and
