Roomsound, the debut full length from Califone, covers the same rustic, slightly ramshackle back forty that Tim Rutili has been ploughing since at least as far back as his previous band Red Red Meat. Only this time the tilled bedrock unveils the most vividly colored, luring crop of songs Rutili has ever harvested. The sleepy, country-blues picking and autumnal melodies are accented with striking splashes of electronic tone color, obsolete keyboards and off-kilter percussion. Lyrically, Roomsound penetrates the breath of pirates, poison apples at a tango contest and the waiting room between death and canonization where missionaries have quit and 19th-century whores are rescued for all the wrong reasons. Roomsound is a hauntingly unique and distinctive record of crafted and sculpted beauty.
Recorded and mixed at clava-sound by Brian Deck.