Xeno & Oaklander: Par Avion (Ghostly International, 2014)

July 13, 2014 at 3:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Xeno & Oaklander: Par Avion

Wierd Records disintegrated a few years ago, so fortunately Xeno & Oaklander have aligned with the Ghostly empire for their newest work. The Brooklyn minimal-synth duo’s sound hasn’t changed much, which is fine because it’s perfect the way it is. I saw them at SXSW last year and their set seemed more like a continuous dance mix, which surprised me a bit, but their albums still consist of concise synth-pop songs of various tempos. “Sheen” and “Jasmine Nights” are the most straightforward 4/4 dance tracks, there’s some excellent speedier tracks (“Lastly”, “Nuage D’Ivoire”), but what stands out the most are the horror-atmospheric slow-jams: “Par Avion”, “Reflections” and “Providence” The latter 2 are short instrumentals, suggesting that this band should look into doing soundtrack work, if they haven’t already. Sean McBride’s voice is absent for most of the album, only appearing on the album’s first 2 tracks, as well as its last; otherwise Liz Wendelbo takes the lead, except for the instrumentals. I’ve listened to this dozens of times this week, it’s just so addicting and I never get tired of it. Now that they’re on Ghostly, maybe they’ll play in Michigan sometime soon? Please?

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