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Pit er Pat

The trio that comprises Pit er Pat has created a genre of their own -- let's call it post-twee. With Fay Davis-Jeffers on keyboards, Butchy Fuego on drums and Rob Doran on bass, Pit er Pat's songs have a childlike, wide-eyed feeling, due in large part to Davis-Jeffers's appealingly meandering vocals. Cues from Krautrock and jazz and a Stereolab aesthetic are in full bloom here as well, allowing the band to stretch its wings and experiment with sound and texture. Doran's bass lines intertwine with Fuego's skittering drums on songs like "Brain Monster," the CD's opening track, although the two occasionally settle into the role of a throbbing, forceful rhythm section. Davis-Jeffers's keyboards softly prance around playfully sung lines like "I like the dark 'cause I'm in disguise," a good example of the innocent posturing that springs up throughout the record. Producer John McEntire's crisp, straightforward production and separated mix gives each instrument its own space within a song, even as the jumbled pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Pyramids is a satisfying effort from a rarity in music -- a band that, while confidently wearing its influences on its sleeves, manages to find its own unique sound.
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Jonah Flicker