Sedona, Arizona native Brandon Decker comes up with some interesting sounds on this, his latest release, Patsy. Issued under the simple moniker of “Decker”, he unleashes nine songs of varying styles and sounds – a mixture of neo-folk, inflections of gospel and psychedelia. Some very deft guitar playing, powerful arrangements and an excellent production gives this a certain something that works.
The standout track, “Cellars” has an ebb-and-flow that at moments reminds me of the better parts off Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon (use of Hammond notwithstanding!); it has a dramatic flair that makes you sit up and take notice; “Spades” veers from quiet and restrained into a feedback frenzy in the middle and “5 Oscillations” is a sonic experiment that leads into the eerie “Esther Mofet” but the transition is seamless. “Ol’ Dirty Revival” is the lengthier companion piece to “ODB”, which begins the album after the noise-test-wave effect of “Saigon” making this a complete cycle.
Although I enjoyed the music and the structures/arrangements of the songs, the vocals (not including the harmonies, which were sharp) are just a little too shrill for my liking. In a lot of ways, he made me think of Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones without the vibrato. But that one distraction aside, Patsy is a fine introduction to Decker.
Patsy is released on February 17th, 2015
http://deckermusic.org/
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