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THE AMERICAN ANALOG SET
SET FREE
ARTS & CRAFTS
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When this Austin band began releasing material, in the mid ’90s, they sounded like collegiate Stereolab admirers attempting to reproduce that band’s metronomic throb with borrowed equipment and more than a few borrowed ideas. As they’ve aged, though, the folks in the American Analog Set have found some intriguing ways to distinguish their music from that of drone-rock heavies like Spiritualized and Galaxie 500. On their sixth album, they keep their sound to a low bubble; most of the songs are anchored by watery clean-channel electric guitars, a steady bass pulse, shuffling drum beats, and warm keyboard bleeps. In mellowing their attack, they’ve found another way to achieve the trancelike state lots of drone rock aspires to through volume and force; here, " Immaculate Heart 1 " draws you in with a groove whose inevitability presents itself as a surprise. And when the AAS throw in something a little rougher, like the buzzing, discordant organ in " Cool Kids Keep, " it’s much more dramatic than it used to be. American Analog Set + Headphones | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | Nov 16 | 617.492.BEAR
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