Matthew & The Arrogant Sea Family Family Family Meets the Magic Christian by: Steve Scully Thu:09-Oct-08 Label: Nova Posta Vinyl Year: 2008 WB rating 86 out of 100

With Eric Pulido of Midlake on their team, Matthew & The Arrogant Sea will always attract a little attention. Although not A-listers just yet, Midlake did manage to produce 2006’s best alt-rock album (The Trials of Van Occupanther), and their follow-up is eagerly anticipated to say the least. For now, however, Pulido’s other pet project – one he pretty much created a label to look after – will have to do. Of course, in the light of this little bit of trivia, you’re tempted to view everything about this band in comparison to their more celebrated townsfolk: their pastoral-pop atmospheric tendencies, their penchant for broad instrumentation, multi-tracked vocals and the like all sit as blatant similarities. There is, however, a left-of-field touch in the way M&TAS goes about its business: you get an inkling that the whole album might very well be the result of a mild acid trip.

Like The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Animal Collective, M&TAS err on the side of experimentalism. While they do exhibit a strong feel for spaciousness in music, they share Grandaddy’s mixture of atmosphere and eccentricity. Nothing sits as more stark an example of this than opening track ‘Within the Universe’, the swirling synth and backing vocals fill the space between a picked acoustic guitar and a growing tempest of snare and tambourine, over which Matthew Gray sings “all my friends are aliens’ babies.” As grating as such consciously-nonsensical lyrics can be, M&TAS occasionally hits the nail right on the head. In ‘Last Time I Saw Jesus’, Gray’s hypnotically wavering voice works its magic around some truly ridiculous imagery: “Last time I saw Jesus/ He was talking to Elvis Presley/ He was mimicking all the zebras/ And laughing at how he sees us/ Last time I saw Jesus/ He was dancing on an orbit/ He was wearing Elton glasses/ And having fun with giants.” He sings all this amidst a swarm of layered vocals, over a sole ukulele.

M&TAS exhibits many of the elements that have contributed to some recent indie-rock gems: Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver have made excessively-layered vocal parts vogue, and M&TAS make use of this technique to great effect. Accompanied by only a ukulele in the final minute of ‘Marry Me Annie’, the swarm of vocals is gorgeously manipulated to complement the central melody.

When the aforementioned lyrical heavy-handedness drifts into the background, and the band steps up and does its work, then M&TAS sound like the vital band they threaten to become. The album’s strongest track, ‘Mock Origami’, has all the atmosphere of a Beach Boys vocal line mixed with the anachronistic charm of Calexico or Beirut, turning a basic melodic vocal line into somewhat of a funeral lament. In similar fashion, the gorgeous ‘Pretty Purple Top Hat’ takes their earthy sounds into orbit: “You were wearing quite a number at the Martian petting zoo/ Eating purple-coloured peanuts from a hippo-sized balloon,”.

Given a little more direction, M&TAS could do very well for themselves. Often they drift too far from their strengths and into the realm of gimmicky acid-rock (‘Olive was an Oliver’ and ‘The Zoot’), but the album’s cohesiveness of feel, the other-worldliness they often achieve, makes Family Family Family Meets the Magic Christian a brilliantly pleasurable album to listen to; one that takes the natural hues of the band’s Denton counterparts and throws the landscape into hyper-colour, dotting the dusty expanses of countryside with betentacled alien folk and kitsch sci-fi high-rises.