Sunday, April 24, 2011

Album Review: Dakota Suite – Morning Lake Forever


This album followed swiftly after the wonderful Signal Hill in 2000. Rather than a cohesive album, it’s a kind of mish-mash, taking Chris Hooson’s singer-songwriter material alongside classical pieces and electronic work.

Chapel Rain shares a lyrical and musical resemblance to the Red House Painters’ Evil for nearly nine minutes. Turk 1 on the other hand is a propulsive, jazzy instrumental. Perhaps the most moving piece is The Streets Were All I Saw, which has some quite beautiful violins backing Hooson’s vocals. Lesseps is an almost science-fiction style electronic piece full of bleeps, evoking Eno.

It culminates with the serene classical piece, About When We Met, a pleasing mix of piano and strings. Despite the lack of cohesion, the pieces all share a similar mood if not sound, which makes this short album quite a compelling one.

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