Familiars
The Antlers, a Brooklyn-based indie-ethereal trio led by singer/songwriter Peter Silberman, find themselves drifting toward jazzy Prefab Spout territory for their fourth studio album, *Familiars*. Though Silberman has graciously accepted the help of additional bandmates Darby Cicci and Michael Lerner, he’s still largely in his own head with sounds that suggest a solitary figure musing past midnight. Cicci pays her own freight by adding vocals in key spots. Her sudden emergence during “Revisited,” a track already flirting with greatness, takes the song to another dimension that justifies its more than seven-minute length, while she invigorates “Parade” to the point of pushing it nearly uptempo. With just nine songs, each track is practically an epic itself, a perfect approach for music that requires time to unspool and expand into the night air. Horn arrangements further augment the sound and tilt toward jazz, without turning the somber vibe into anything ersatz. “Director” finds a touch of Talk Talk in its placid beauty.
The Antlers’ first full-length in three years confirms that they are operating in their own zone. It doubles down on their last record's somnambulant moodiness and increases the focus on atmosphere, resulting in their longest, most subtle release.
The Antlers’ frontman Peter Silberman recently compared listening to his old music, namely 2009’s Hospice, to the jarring experience of “looking at an old picture of yourself.” In the five years since that album’s release, Silberman, along with multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci and drummer Michael Lerner, has managed…
The Brooklyn trio's fifth studio album confirms them as one of the most vital bands in indie rock.
“Sad” is a catch-all we use to describe music that turns inward, reflects and exists without concern for how its audience…
Familiars, the fourth album from Brooklyn-based indie/chamber/electronic trio Antlers, comes as a glacially slow step in the slow-moving progress that marked both their death-themed 2009 breakthrough album Hospice and its more electronica-leaning 2011 follow-up, Burst Apart.
From 2009's Hospice onward, Brooklyn trio the Antlers have consistently crafted slow-burning indie rock set to soul-pouring lyrics, and this album is no exception.
For those of us expecting that The Antlers would continue on the path of their 2012 Undersea EP, a drawn-out batch of psychedelia, Familiars is an unexpected turn.
Album review: The Antlers - Familiars. "A natural evolution, its arrangements exercises in restraint…"
The Antlers' new album 'Familiars' reviewed by Northern Transmissions. The LP comes out on June 17th via Transgressive records, the first single is "Hotel"
Brooklyn's Antlers are as mournful as ever on their fourth album, but add a new, vaguely jazz-influenced layer to their sound, writes <strong>Jon Dennis</strong>
The Antlers - Familiars review: Like a weightless, hate-less animal - beautifully oblivious