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mark's Collection

Akron Family   04/14/2006

Ekko, Utrecht, Netherlands
Source Sony ecm 717 > Sony MZ-NH900 ( PCM 44,1/16) > sonic stage 3.4 > adobe audition 2.0 > CD-wave 1.94.5
Media FLAC   1 disc
Tech Notes AKRON/FAMILY - Ekko Utrecht NL - 2006-04-14


linage: Sony ecm 717 > Sony MZ-NH900 ( PCM 44,1/16) > sonic stage 3.4 > adobe audition 2.0 > CD-wave 1.94.5

recorded by Bigredbag.

....Akron/Family are four extremely nice, sincere and well-mannered young men from rural America who came to NYC (in 2002) to make music, hoping to find a thread of real magic still winding through this city’s music scene. They certainly did just that, but they did it by retreating into a tiny Brooklyn apartment, where they made their own world instead, in complete and stubborn isolation. They proceeded (while simultaneously growing alarmingly long beards and developing a playful but hermetic quasi-religious/sonic worldview/creed known as “AK” or sometimes “AK-AK”) to make several albums worth of recordings on crude home equipment – the material compulsively chopped, spliced, and orchestrated into fractal jewels of song and schismatically opposed atmospheres.

They accrued at least 3 albums worth of music in this obsessive manner. Along the way, they sent me the increasingly compelling results. Soon I was completely won over – stunned in fact – by a show at Brooklyn’s Pete’s Candy Store, where the music veered from gentle American country folk to unabashed electronic noise to gathering and erupting crescendos, to extended skronk improvisations that then suddenly cut to an LSD version of a backwoods barbershop quartet or a Louvin Brothers spiritual – sometimes all within the course of one ridiculously long “song” – ha ha!

Ryan, who sings lead on most of the songs, has one of those pure and sonorous voices that when sliding up to the higher registers inevitably evokes comparisons to angels and elicits uncomfortable feelings in girl and boy alike, but when they all sing together it’s like the goddamn Beatles or Beach Boys or maybe an eerie and twisted version of The Band.


.......


In any event, there’s a wealth of sonic variety contained herein, and first and foremost they’re great SONGS, and well sung indeed. I certainly hope you enjoy the music!

– Michael Gira/Young God Records

*I enjoyed working with Akron so much in fact that for my own current Angels of Light album I solicited their services as backing band and full collaborators on the arrangements. They all play about 20 instruments, and their abovementioned “AK” approach to the process contributed greatly to a revivification of my own music, for which I owe them gratitude. They’ll be touring the USA as openers for Angels of Light in April ’05, and will also then play as my band live.....





Seth Olinsky (various instruments, vocals) age 23, from Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Miles Seaton(various instruments, vocals) age 25, from Porterville, Ca.

Dana Janssen (various instruments, vocals) age 24, from Williamsport Pennsylvania.

Ryan Vanderhoof (various instruments, vocals) age 25, from Union Springs New York.



setlist (transcripted from the found one)

-suchness 9:47
-moment 7:04
-rainforest 10:56
-small shape 6:36
-blessing forks 16:52
-ali 4:18
-raising the sparks 14:37(incomplete; missing the last +- 4 minutes)

total time: 70m13s


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Owned by mark · Last Updated May 23, 2023