Altered Zones

On his new Shakedown LP, Raw Thrills offers 14 new tracks of falsetto croons over soft-muffle guitars, drum machine thud, and outer space synthesizers -- often dipping into '50s doo-wop loverboy mode. There's the luxurious tones of "Making Love on a Piano". There's the tropical bounce of "Coconuts". There's "Sonia", something bleak and cold, something that might normally have a super deep-voiced guy gutting in the background, like Silk Flowers. Instead, Zak Mering floats in higher registers, layering voices into a choir effect that -- coupled with vibraphone sounds (or something) -- gets real deep on some Church of X-Files business. (via Friendship Bracelet)

MP3: Raw Thrills: "Sonia"

Buy Shakedown LP from Japanese label Sixteen Tambourines when it drops early next year. I think Zak said something about a few hundred copies being TEAL and the rest being black, or the other way around, so look out for that