Akron Family - Meek Warrior (Young God)

Young God’s flagship freak-folk collective returns with another volume ofslightly unhinged, hypnotic campfire sing-alongs. In their first full-length outing, these gents laid down some fantastic, organic folk music which felt like the dream tag-team match-up of Phil Elverum’s Microphones and the stylings of Devendra Banhart. With Meek Warrior, though, the band seems to fuse their mellow woodsiness with a more energetic, experimental, feral feeling. The initial track on the album, “Blessing Force”, is a nine-minute freakout that feels as if the Akrons have ingested the entire Boredoms catalog and are now sweating it out in an all-night, mushroom-fueled dance party. Once this is out of their system, they finish the rest of the album with circular folk songs that seem almost chant-like (often with multi-voiced lyrical rounds repeating the same phrases over and over). The result is pleasantly soothing, but novel and exciting enough to keep your interest. Unfortunately, I must say I’d recommend their two previous releases before I pushed this one, but, as a band that is constantly challenging themselves, an occasional step backwards is inevitable. Thankfully, the step is small, and may instead simply be a stepto the side, onto a new track.

– Kyle Olson