I
first learned of Trails and Ways when they followed me on Twitter. I was
expecting something a little alternative and kind of hippie perhaps, but what I
got was bossa nova dream pop, which I was not expecting, and for which there
are no obvious comparisons.
There
are some similarities to the ambient and indietronica that I have listened to,
but with a couple of important distinctions. One is that there is not the same
monotony. The music builds and varies and does things, probably bossa nova
things, though I don’t know the form well enough to be sure.
There
is that variation within the song, but also the songs differ from one another,
also very important. It is overall mellow. Actually, I felt like there was a
real Northwest sound initially, but they are from Oakland, so maybe it is just
a Pacific Coast sound.
Some
of the variety comes from instruments. They do use electronics on many songs.
For example, on “Mindnight City”, there seems to be some synthesizer, and maybe
some flutes, but there is also a distinct texture added from voice and hands,
and right before it, on “One Note” (this is from the Temporal album),
there is a different percussion, and a guitar with a kind of Brazilian sound,
and vocals that climb and coo. Clearly they take influences from a variety of
places. Check “Nunca” as an example of that.
They
are available for listening on Soundcloud and Spotify, and then available for
purchase from Amazon. I could not find them on iTunes. There are several tour
dates available on Facebook.
It’s
a distinct sound, and probably not for everyone, but if you’ve had enough of
the same old thing, this could be a logical band to try.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B008K4CTAC?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Trails%20And%20Ways
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