aspera: sugar and feathered

Sure, the gratuitous space rock/drug comparison is an old and cheap crit cliché, but, hey, not every record review needs to reinvent the fucking wheel. Neither, for that matter, does every rock group or rock record: keep in mind.

The elements upon which Sugar is built are familiar sta-ples of '90s psych/space/prog. The vocals swoop impressively from a David Baker rumble to a Frankie Valli falsetto, with a middle ground that employs the ever-popular Wayne Coyne shakiness. Melodies float along on keyboards, are drenched in reverb and delay, explode with drums and My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar noise. Songs constantly destroy and rebuild their momentum as tempos veer all over the place.

But even though the components may be recognizable, Aspera deserves credit for making the whole shebang sound new and interesting. It's like looking in a funhouse mirror: you know what it is, but it's distorted and weird enough to hold your attention. More importantly, Aspera knows how to write a good song, and this album has 12 of 'em.

There is a dreamy, psychedelic carnival feel to much of the album, due to the use of ballpark organ (on "Great Leaps" especially) or a loping beat ("Say Say Good Bye Bye"). The band also shows itself capable, with "Another Blue Frisbee" and "Twenty Minutes of the Day," of producing what could almost be considered pop songs. However, be it a guitar line processed beyond recognition, or an echoey vocal nearly buried in the background, Aspera always provides an unusual effect that neatly undermines its own pop tendencies.

Laden with clichés or not, Sugar and Feathered makes it a moot point. What Aspera does with these elements reminds us why they became genre staples in the first place: sometimes there's nothing more satisfying than turning off and spacing out on the ceiling for a while, and these guys know it. (Big Wheel Recreation)

—Jim Laakso

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