The Dodos - Visiter

Album Review by Jason Morton | 29 Jul 2008
Album title: Visiter
Artist: The Dodos
Label: Wichita
Release date: 14 Jul

To describe Visiter by The Dodos as folk rock is a bit of a misnomer, but it’s about the quickest, closest-to-centre punch to pull. They’ve also garnered some attribution as psychedelic pop, but that doesn’t seem to fit either. There’s a laundry list of things this album isn’t, but one thing it certainly they certainly deliver, without question: an above-the-cut UK debut from the Californian two-piece. Some aspects of the guitar work, and certainly the tone of vocals, recall a more amped up version of Grizzly Bear, less concerned with spookiness than producing a head-bobbing melody. The duo’s pop pursuits get aided by the drumming of Logan Kroeber, whose beats seem almost more attuned to a hardcore band at times (before forming he’d been working on his prog-metal skills). And while Visiter never quite reaches full cohesion, the oddball tracks presented, such as It’s That Time Again, a bar closing anthem with sad bastard horns blaring, and Paint the Rust, which elicits a cagey blues sound, show a respectable diversity of style. [Jason Morton]

The Dodos play The Dog House, Dundee on 3 Sep and King Tut's, Glasgow on 4 Sep.

http://www.dodosmusic.net