All Night Radio: Spirit Stereo Frequency

The lo-fi avant-pop project All Night Radio is the brainchild of Dave Scher and Jimi Hey, part-time members of countless semi-psychedelic indie-rock bands, most prominently Beachwood Sparks and Lilys. The two split the vocal and instrumental duties evenly and share All Night Radio's unifying concept, which has to do with the wondrous mystery of sound bouncing through the sky and landing in tiny receivers, the global funneling down to the personal. On the band's debut album, Spirit Stereo Frequency, Scher and Hey's grandiose ideas come out primarily as common garage-bound trippiness, held together by George Harrison-style guitar, tinny piano, synth/organ washes, clanging percussion, and murky vocals. But the form of All Night Radio's pretty, melodic mayhem isn't as remarkable as what that form conveys. Hidden within the excessive echo and foggy sound are traces of hip-hop, country, salsa, orchestral music, and all manner of general-interest announcements. Listening to Spirit Stereo Frequency is like driving through an area of broadcast clutter and getting simultaneous sonic bleed from three or four stations, at least two of which are playing The Shins. The album is almost too involved to fully absorb in one sitting, and the individual songs don't stand out much, although the twangy balladry of "We're On Our Wave" and the free-ranging whiz-bang of "Sky Bicycle (You've Been Ringing)" will likely turn some heads. Nevertheless, each song contains moments where the overlapping styles spark a few seconds or more of music never heard before, during which Scher and Hey's "open to the atmosphere" intuition acquires the depth and friction of prophecy.