White Hinterland: Kairos - COMPACT DISCS

Title: Kairos
Artist: White Hinterland
Label: Dead Oceans
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 656605133423
Genre: Indie Rock/Pop
Release Date: 2010-03-09
Number of Discs: 1

Kairos, the second album from White Hinterland, is a stripped-down, atmospheric record with up-front, bright vocals. For vocalist Casey Dienel and producer/multi-instrumentalist Shawn Creeden, it's an effective combination, and ultimately a bold one, for the fact that most like-minded acts bury the vocals. Musically, Kairos makes much out of the slow, drip-drip beat of trip-hop and a light touch of some Aphex Twin-like skittery percussion. Vocally, it's a showcase sort of an album: Dienel's singing is full and commanding. The band's move from the East Coast to Portland, Ore., had Dienel and Creeden working without a piano, which ultimately became a creative leap as White Hinterland turned to an array of looping sounds. On "Moon Jam," Dienel sings of the disorientation of self-doubt, following "I cannot control myself" with "I am afraid of so many things." It's a theme that weaves in perfectly with the music's lean ambience of slinky beats, deep bass and slow, insistent grooves. Kairos' 10 songs span 41 minutes, with a consistency that suggests a somewhat conservative approach to recording. But it's a control that makes the album's unexpected moments that much stronger: The bouncy shift midway through "Bow and Arrow," the sing-songy lilt of "Amsterdam" and the R&B flourish that Dienel adds when she sings "forever and ever" on the album's closing track, "Magnolias."

Tracks:
1.1 Icarus
1.2 Moon Jam
1.3 No Logic
1.4 Begin Again
1.5 Bow ; Arrow
1.6 Amsterdam
1.7 Thunderbird
1.8 Cataract
1.9 Huron
1.10 Magnolias