Brotherface
The songs on Brotherface are a unique combination of anthemic and psychedelic; not meandering, definitely structured, but also bubbling and swirling with layers of sound that seem far more complicated than what two guys can make standing alone on a stage. The aquarium-sound of "Miss Mermaid" makes love into a slow swim, while the energetic gallop and brisk harmonies of "Cash For Gold" call to mind the feeling of driving across and empty expanse of highway with your friends late at night, shouting into the dark just to hear your own voice.
Older brother Andy Ralph is an emerging contemporary artist as well as being a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and you can hear it. Both the lyrics and the melodies contain multitudes of colors, and the way they blend calls to mind the mindfulsweep of a painter's brush across canvas. It's a balancing act between melody and rhythm, something the pair have mastered to the point that it wouldn't be surprising to hear that those rumors about siblings and telepathy had some truth to them.
James Ralph, who is the younger of the two, smiles behind his drum kit before attacking it with a force that's not at all violent, but nonetheless powerful and precise, building structure over the many layered sounds. Don't make that think the two don't work together, though. Their band was built out of making silence into something, and in that they are entirely collaborative, Andy lending inspiration to James' drum parts and James suggesting melodies, as well as occasionally playing keyboards with one hand and the drums with the other.
Songs:
01. Head To Toe
02. Hot Days
03. Miss Mermaid
04. Swamp Fire Lake
05. Family Dinner
06. Barefoot Art
07. Cash For Gold
08. Yamaha Trip
09. North Park Fairies
10. Dry Hands