Moonwatching

The great advantage of living near Record and Tape Exchange in Fairfax is that I can walk in once a week and have a whole new set of decisions to make as to where my money will go. This past week, the great find was a copy of "Selenography" by Rachel's. Granted, I am a sucker for anything released on Touch and Go / Quarterstick, but "Selenography" is still a magnificent pull because it is unlike anything else I listen to.
This is my first Rachel's album, so a brief intro: Rachel's is a sort of musical collective (as I understand it) from the Louisville scene that have stretched the whole post-rock concept to the point where most of the time, you feel like you are listening to WETA after a night of heavy drinking. Most of these pieces (I'm not sure "songs" is appropriate) are structured around a basic acoustic guitar / piano / violin setup, ornamented by other strings, sounds, and percussion for swells of movement or texture. This setup, of course, is destined to be fragmented by the very premise of the group. "Kentucky Nocturne" resembles a vision of the Old South, starting out like a fingerpicked front-porch ditty and becoming the sort of thing that would move a Reconstruction plantation house party. This is followed by "Honeysuckle Suite," which begins with sweeping harpsichord and fleshes out into a full-blown Baroquesque beeswarm - followed by "Artemisia," a vibraphone'd trip-hop lucid dream complete with a Mogwai answering machine message playing over it.
Yeah, sure, the whole postmodern post-rock thing is played out and probably not all that missed outside the realm of true believers, but this is the perfect soundtrack to a sticky summer evening of sitting on a porch, having a smoke, and reading Flann O'Brien. So check it out if any of that sounds at all appealing to you.

Rachel's: Selenography
http://www.mediafire.com/?pa2jdnv5gzm