FALL by BOY KING ISLANDS

Etherical indie album with acoustic rock as wel as fat electronics on this coloured vinyl LP from Eat Concrete.Friends and musical collaborators for nearly 20 years, Zachary Mastoon (better known as Caural) and Jason Hunt saw the first hints of Boy King Islands emerge in the summer of 1995. Outside in a park together at twilight, their improvisation unfolded as the basis for "Feeling Nowhere" - an emotive and melancholy progression magically unforgotten years later. Named after a painting by the hugely prolific outsider artist Henry Darger, the duo of Boy King Islands was resurrected in the winter of 2002 when - then roommates - they stretched microphone chords around doors and through thin walls of their north side Chicago apartment to capture the beginnings of what would become their debut: buzzing Fender guitars with the gnarl of tube distortion; the tines of a Rhodes or the warm hum of a Wurlitzer; an mbira plucked through a wah pedal or a wooden box with broken glass and beads shook as percussion; and Mastoon's whispery and always doubled vocals swimming in a wash of crashing cymbals. Mastoon returned to NYC that next year but, when not on tour or working on releases as Caural, he and Jason sent each other ideas to be fleshed out in infrequent studio sessions deftly engineered by their friend Keith Kreuser. Years later, the resulting collection of fuzzy and swirling shoegaze-influenced pop music spanning nearly 8 years was mixed in Chicago where the two began: with nostalgic echoes but eyes gazing forward. Listen to it loudly. Limited edition on coloured vinyl.