Califone
Califone tears another audio hole in the space/time continuum with its fourth full-length, emerging with the band’s best collage of cross-bred eras yet. Acoustic Delta blues (“Sunday Noises,” “Rose Petal Ear”), back-porch Appalachia (“Burned By the Christians”), folk-pop (“The Orchids”) and syncopated funk (“Pink & Sour”) marinate in futuristic sounds, like Mississippi John Hurt, Neil Young and Curtis May?eld transported through Four Tet’s chop shop. Brian Deck’s production envelops Tim Rutili’s vocals and elliptical narratives in nuance—check the layered murk and tribal beats that birth the chrome-plated rock beast “Black Metal Valentine.” Throughout, melodies bloom from ?ickering shadows, state their case, then bleed organically into tape loops, junkyard percussion, sampled clatter and deep-space feedback. You’ll be amazed at how familiar the future sounds.