Madurez – LETTING UP DESPITE GREAT FAULTS: Alexander Devotion (Shelflife Records, Ep, 2017)
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LETTING UP DESPITE GREAT FAULTS se han convertido en este tiempo ya en una banda veterana, con cierto recorrido. Han evolucionado de un Pop de dormitorio con trazos Shoegazers y Electrónicos a un proyecto más centrado en el Electro-Pop de influencias más ochenteras y guitarras más disimuladas. Alexander Devotion es su última entrega, un Ep en el que la música de LUDGF no ha bajado el listón de su interés.
“With their Alexander Devotion EP, Letting Up Despite Great Faults enter a new stage of maturation and confidence. Through meticulous drum beats, catchy guitars, and those familiar bittersweet vocals, their brand of sonic pop is explored in a most beautiful way. Formed in Los Angeles, CA, they have now settled into their new home of Austin, TX with an even stronger grasp of energetic performances and live shows. There is a hint of 80s and 90s nostalgia but there is no question they are embracing the present.
Songwriter and lead vocalist Mike Lee describes the EP: “There’s a little more of an experimental feeling, or a freer approach to songwriting. I hadn’t written anything in maybe a year so I felt like there was a lot of rust to shake off but also I wanted to push myself to do new things. I think an EP was a great mindset for me to explore who I needed to be” (Shelflife Records)
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Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Neon (2014)
Los tejanos Letting Up Despite Great Faults han aparecido en varias ocasiones en TJB. Y en todo este tiempo, los chicos no han alcanzado notoriedad ni tan siquiera a nivel Indie. Digo ésto porque con este cuarto trabajo, al menos debería haberles dado para conseguir algún tipo de interés aún siquiera a nivel de blogs. Pero no, su Dream-Pop preñado de buenos temas, arreglos de sintes, y voces susurradas no parece que en esta ocasión vaya a tener la repercusión que sin duda merecería.
Pero el mundo de la música es así, y Neon va a servir para que, al menos en TJB, LUDGF tengan su pequeño hueco. De nuevo.
“Listening to Neon, the newest LP from this dreamy pop band, lives up to this. The album is a dreamy compilation of tracks that sound like ’80s synth pop. It sounds like summer. It’s a golden-hued, shimmering album that’s slightly melancholy and nostalgic.
The track “Gold” stands out with plenty of ’80s pop influences and breathy vocals that pull the listener in. A driving guitar sets the stage for the synths, placing this track in a dreamy haze without dragging. “Bishops” starts off ominous and minimal with vocals from the female member of the group, Annah Fisette. It changes up the tone of the album slightly, grounding the general shininess of the other tracks. “Disappear” is a feel-good track. It has a glittery quality to it. Between the light as air guitar, the catchy synths, and the faint vocals, it sounds more like mainstream indie pop compared the rest of the album. Front man, Mike Lee, and Fisette alternate vocals on this track, making it sound reminiscent to something from The Postal Service.
The album has thirteen relatively short tracks. The longest track is almost four minutes long, while the shortest hovers just around a minute and a half. It’s hard to latch onto each track due to the format. The songs meld into one another. Some songs tend to get lost by the end, and some of the shorter songs are like snippets of what could be a really promising longer tune. The songs are fleeting and end leaving the listener longing for more” (In Your Speakers)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Untogether (2012)
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Sin hacer demasiado ruido, casi con la boca pequeña y sin estridencias, nos llega este segundo disco de Letting Up Despite Great Faults. Un grupo en el que forzosamente has de detenerte. Primero porque si quieres sacar su nombre en una conversación distendida, te costará trabajo vocalizarlo. Segundo, porque son una de las bandas que siempre tienen su hueco en The JangleBox. Desde la edición de su primer álbum, aquel fantástico disco homónimo, LUDGF han tenido siempre un huequecito en nuestro blog. Untogether no es más que la evolución lógica iniciada en Papercrush, el Ep de 2011, también reseñado en TJB. En este último trabajo, el sonido de la banda de Mike Lee se torna algo más electrónico, dando algo más de protagonismo a los sintes sobre las guitarras. Esa perfecta mezcla de Electropop con trazos Shoegazers es la absoluta protagonista. Los temas se suceden armoniosamente en el reproductor hablando del fin de las relaciones, no necesariamente sentimentales; de lo complicado de esos sentimientos a veces. Su fórmula ha sido utilizada por bandas afines en el espacio y en el tiempo como The Pains of Being Pure at Heart y explotada con mayor éxito comercial. Acaso éso es lo menos importante para este combo afincado en Austin: Letting Up Despite Great Faults son una banda que se conforma con entregarnos esas pequeñas entregas de armonías arropadas por cálidas capas de electrónica (Bulletproof girl; Take my jacket, Pauline; Postcard; Details of my world; Numbered days) o dejarnos esas gemitas agridulces y melancólicas, más cercanas a su antiguo repertorio: Visions, Scratch, Breaking, On your mark…
Sea como fuere, y de un modo u otro, LUDGF son una de las bandas favoritas de quien escribe. Su música ha crecido, (casi) paralela al blog, y Untogether es el mejor resultado posible. Si una pequeña mayoría no les quiere reconocer, allá ellos. Su música seguirá acompañándonos.
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“Letting Up Despite Great Faults is really the perfect moniker for this L.A.-via-Austin dream-pop outfit, one that draws attention to its modest intents while demanding a certain ideological investment: Even the act of uttering the band’s full name in casual conversation requires a commitment to proper diction. Despite their deceptively daydreamy demeanor, they’re a band that makes you work for it. While their second album, Untogether, strongly suggests their definition of an existential crisis amounts to not being able to decide whether their favorite New Order song is “Age of Consent” or “Thieves Like Us”, frontman Michael Lee keeps his hushed, delicate voice at a considerable distance, forcing you to wade through the songs’ fuzz-covered jangle and bright synth shimmer to get at their emotional core.
At a time when like-minded contemporaries such as M83 and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart have revealed the commercial potential– or at least steady festival guarantees– that can be mined from mid-80s British underground sounds, Letting Up’s commitment to their forebears’ downsized dimensions and twee-as-fuck temperament seems positively defiant. The band gets considerable mileage out of simplicity: Untogether comes fully stocked with the sort of minimal but richly melodic Bernard Sumner-esque guitar patterns (“Scratch”, “Take My Jacket Pauline”) and dry-iced, strobe-lit Hacienda flashbacks (“Postcard”, “Bulletproof Girl”) that make for pure indie pop catnip. And despite working within intimate, drum-machined parameters, the band evinces a greatness of depth to its sound– upon hearing the baritone guitar hook underpinning the effervescent opener “Visions”, it’s natural to mentally substitute in a cello line.
But while Letting Up are game to mix up their production palette– the stuttering breakbeat chorus of “The Best Part” practically verges on drum’n’bass– the impact of these 10 songs is dulled by Lee’s uniformly smeared, sighing vocals, which are too verbose to serve merely as texture, but too sedate to convincingly communicate the interpersonal narratives seemingly at play here. Whether the lyrics call for a tender affirmation like “the best part is you,” or a biting rebuke like “I can’t believe you said those things to me,” the mood is one of constant, hazy-headed serenity; even the secondary vocals of keyboardist Annah Fisette prove to be more of a complement than a counterpoint, a squandered opportunity to introduce some he-said/she-said tension. Ultimately, listening to Untogether feels a lot like receiving a particularly pressing phone call from a significant other in the middle of student-disco dancefloor: You assume what’s being said is important and impassioned, but it’s hard to fully connect with the message” (pitchfork.com)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Paper crush (Ep, 2011)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults son una de esas bandas de las que poco se conoce, que editan discos que pasan más o menos desapercibidos pero que en los que los disfrutamos dejan una huella imborrable. Ya sucedió con su anterior álbum, su fantástico disco homónimo ya reseñado en TJB; y algo parecido nos ocurre con este mini álbum de cinco temas. Su mezcla de Dream-Pop, Shoegaze y Synth-Pop nos envuelve en un aura de cierta melancolía que condiciona toda la escucha. Hay quien dice que han tirado hacia la onda de The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Oyendo Teenage tide o ciertos devaneos Shoegazers como los de I feel you happen estaríamos de acuerdo. Pero si escuchamos la maraña de sintes que incluyen en Repeating hearts, la sensación es diferente. Sin ser demasiado amantes de la música electrónica, con este Paper crush nos encontramos con un tratamiento mucho menos protagonistas de los teclados, con un encuentro mucho más amable con la electrónica. Paper crush, aun siendo un buen disco, no es, con todo un álbum que llegue a la altura de su predecesor, pero significa una transición amigable hacia nuevos proyectos y un disco más que agradable de escuchar.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults – Paper crush (Ep, 2011)
“The third release from this group, whose name is derived from a Blonde Redhead song, combs the electronic depths of ancient and perhaps lost 80’s music as a template. They seem inspired by the melodies of the period, from New Wave bands in the vein of Human League or Modern English, and make them deliciously electronic. Paper Crush is the combination of shoegaze and dreamy synth pop music that sounds unconstrained and uninhibited.
The Los Angeles trio evokes sunshine induced feelings while still sounding like a rainy day. Michael Lee’s vocals are delivered at arm’s length in a hushed, smoky style. The electronic music is full of blips and rollercoaster rhythms against vocals delicate as tissue paper. It brings together the melodic feel of a band like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart as though produced by Sleigh Bells (on “Teenage Pride”) with the sonic textures of a DJ like CFCF (on “Sophia in Gold”). The result is fun but somewhat reserved. “I Feel You happen” is awash in static, fuzzed out guitar, the only track that seems removed from the whole of the EP” (deckfight.com)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Teenage tide (Single, 2011)
En TJB estamos hoy de enhorabuena, por la sencilla razón de que se acercan hoy por el blog una de las bandas revelación de hace dos temporadas, según nuestro criterio. Se trata de Letting Up Despite Great Faults, de quienes ya os presentamos su segundo trabajo, aquel genial disco de título homónimo de 2009. Para este año prometen un Ep para el verano, titulado Paper crush (2011), cuya carta de presentación es este Teenage tide, un tema tremendo en el que todos los elementos que nos epataron de su anterior entrega vuelven a aparecer, incluso mejorados, para hacer de Teenage tide una canción deliciosa que se mueve a medias entre el Dream-Pop y la Indietrónica. Una auténtica delicia que LUDGF nos regala para que podamos descargarla y degustarla convenientemente hasta la aparición de su nuevo trabajo. Pincha en el enlace y me comentas.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults – Teenage tide (Single, 2011)
“Having become a staple on Knox Road and one of our good friends from our few years of blogging, electronic pop masterminds Letting Up Despite Great Faults will continue to get play here as long they keep making music we love.
They recently released a new track off their forthcoming EP, Paper Crush, for free download. The song, called “Teenage Tide,” incorporates everything we’ve come to expect from previous Letting Up material with a slightly more produced and coherent sound. Stirring guitars deliver a steady, raspy rhythm throughout, and, as usual, Mike Lee’s gentle voice shines. Caitlin Dwyer provides some timely harmonies as well. Which basically means “Teenage Tide” has all the elements of pop songs I love” (knoxroad.com)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Our younger noise (from Letting up despite great faults, 2009)
Actuación en directo de la banda californiana Letting Up Despite Great Faults, interpretando uno de los mejores temas del disco, Our younger noise.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Letting up despite great faults (2009)
Hoy vamos a degustar en The JangleBox un disco del año pasado que sin embargo hemos descubierto hace poco y que considero que merece la pena reseñar. Se trata del primer largo de Letting Up Despite Great Faults, tras su Ep de debut, Movement (2006). Este álbum del grupo californiano es toda una joyita de material emocionalmente inflamable: Indietrónica que rápidamente te llega a los sentidos en forma de gemas sonoras, hábilmente construidas e interpretadas de forma amorosa y podríamos decir artesanal, ya que la autoedición ha sido la forma en que LUDGF -obvio escribir de nuevo todo el nombre- ha elegido para distribuir sus canciones. Guitarras y teclados analógicos unidos a sintes y a innumerables arreglitos electrónicos hacen su aparición a lo largo de todo el disco, que está preñado, como decíamos, de momentos memorables. Desde el comienzo, In steps, temazo que fácilmente podrían firmar los MGMT más poperos, el disco nos sorprende con cada tema y va tomando forma y cuerpo de manera amable y sencilla. Folding under stories told, The colours aren´t you or me, Our younger noise, Pause, So fast: you -ésta particularmente me encanta, con sus teclados simulando cajas de música infantil-; Sun drips, Release… Disco de diez en el que se mezclan por igual los sentimientos a flor de piel con la sensibilidad desarrollada tanto por instrumentos analógicos como electrónicos. Algo así como el adelanto del Pop-Psicodélico con el que gentes como The High Wire o Beach House están dando tanto que hablar. Hay quien los ha querido emparentar con el Shoegaze y no les falta razón, porque muchas de sus canciones están inmersas y rodeadas por un cierto halo de ensoñación, aunque yo iría más allá y los relacionaría tanto con The Radio Dept. como con The Postal Service, y además están bendecidos por Ben Gibbard. Un discazo que merece la pena degustar. Por aquí ya lo hemos hecho.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults – Letting up despite great faults (2009)
“Had Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello known what impact putting programmed beats to blushing lyrics sung with a tender voice would have on music, they could have made a fortune with the patent. L.A.’s Letting Up Despite Great Faults show their softness even in their name, not to mention Postal Service as an influence, along with the other 300 or so artists listed on their MySpace page. Thankfully, they’re wise enough to look at more than a few of those names for inspiration on their self-titled album. The follow-up to an EP that Gibbard himself gave thumbs up to, Letting Up is awash in wistful melodies, layers of shoegaze guitars, ringing synthesizers and a static-y drum machine. “In Steps” follows the Radio Dept. blueprint by providing feel-good melancholy with a snapping beat, droopy bass and pensive vocals, whereas “Pause” swells with analogue synths and placid strumming like M83 often does. But LUDGF know better than to fall into any sort of formula. “Sun Drips” may pick up an acoustic, but they subtly incorporate keyboard strokes and a breezy hum so that it doesn’t spoil the mood, and “Release” is a straight, mid-tempo ballad immersed in a wash of distortion and reverb. Letting Up Despite Great Faults prove their name wrong by turning in an album short on faults and high on that warm fuzzy they intended to spark” (Cam Lindsay, en explain.ca)
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