cars & trains is the moniker of digital/analog impresario Tom Filepp, a mini-media mogul out of Oregon who heads up Circle Into Square, a label-cum-magazine.  With his fingers in so many pies, you'd rightly expect that Mr. Filepp's own music would speak to a bevy of influences.  His recent release the roots, the leaves doesn't disappoint in this regard.  More sonic textures than Mahler's 9^th have been crammed into this album, with genres ranging from the sparest spoken word to melancholy maximalist techtronica. 

Range notwithstanding, it's no coincidence that the two gorgeous title tracks, "the roots" and "the leaves", are vocal-free efforts.  cars & trains seems most at ease when the instruments do the talking.  Employing an assemblage of found sounds, warped recording techniques, bells, buzzers and whistles, cars & trains exhibit a playfulness and ingenuity reminiscent of a gentler Richard D. James.  When the carefully choreographed cacophony becomes a mere backdrop for Mr. Filepp's vocals, on the other hand, the spell is somewhat broken.

And that's a damn shame, because the lyrics on the roots, the leaves are a thing of beauty.  Equal parts confession, description, and exhortation with a genuine grasp of the musical possibilities of words, Mr. Filepp could hold his own at a poetry slam any night of the week.  The delivery of the words, however, is another story.  The sometimes off key and off kilter vocals jar unpleasantly with the precision of the electronic backdrop.  "dead telephone" and "intimidated by silence" make the grade, but "asleep on a train" and "the bird in your chest" are absolutely sunk by this unwelcome tension.  Once again, that's a damn shame because "asleep on a train" (along with "some lonesome street corner") has some of the most surprising and delightful lyrical tempo changes on the album.

It's impossible to review a could-have-been, so it won't be done here.  It's enough to say that cars & trains has produced good work in the roots, the leaves.  Beautiful lyrics combined with smart assemblages of live and electronic samples, molded into brief pop epiphanies.  With a few cuts and revisions a good album could become a great EP.

MP3 Stream: "dead telephones"