Palms : It’s Midnight in Honolulu

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/palmsitsmidnightinhonolulu.jpg" alt=" " />Europe meets America somewhere over the South Pacific in Palms’ debut, <em>It’s Midnight in Honolulu</em>....
6.7 Rare Book Room
2008 

Palms : It's Midnight in HonoluluEurope meets America somewhere over the South Pacific in Palms’ debut, It’s Midnight in Honolulu.  The pairing of a Midwesterner in Ryan Schaefer and Berliner in Nadja Korinth was bound to bring together some disparate sounds, and as Palms, they certainly range wide.  The pieces don’t always join up quite right, but it’s certainly remarkable on It’s Midnight in Honolulu.

If there’s anything that runs through Midnight it’s an echoing, marching haunt, like something out of The Brothers Grimm or Edgar Allen Poe.  But Korinth & Schaefer do lots of different things with it, below it, and above it.  Korinth sings mostly in German on “Der Koenig”, “Dad Lowenfell”, and “Boundary Waters”, but the two early tracks are stripped drumbeats, while the latter, penultimate piece is kraut-tech.  Middle number “New Moon” is a slow, choral-tronica haunt, while follower “Hang Your Head” is a beat-chant – and finisher “Our Home” brings a quiet, piano-creep.

However, that’s not all the diversity – or even it’s most extreme.  On early piece “End of Term”, plus later ones “Leather Daddies” and “Agniezska”, Korinth and especially Schaefer deliver sad but clear melodic drone-vocals that actually verge on pop (reminiscent of The Vaselines, if you can believe it…).  “Leather Daddies” even has a catchy beat behind its monotone love song.

Along with Lia Ices’ Necima (QRO review), It’s Midnight in Honolulu is one of two first full-length albums from Rare Book Boom Records, which has grown out of Nicolas Vernhes’ Rare Book Room studio (Animal Collective, Black Dice, Cat Power, Silver Jews, Deerhunter) in Brooklyn.  Vernhes & the Room have found an overly diverse grab bag, certainly, on It’s Midnight in Honolulu, but they pull out some interesting things.

MP3 Stream: “Leather Daddies”

{audio}/mp3/files/Palms – Leather Daddies.mp3{/audio}

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