Houses

All Night

Lefse

Oct 12, 2010 Web Exclusive By Laura Studarus Bookmark and Share


Last year, Chicago-based electronic musician Dexter Tortoriello achieved the ultimate American dream—leaving it all behind. Tortoriello decamped to Hawaii where, before the money ran out and civilization came calling, he and girlfriend Megan Messina created All Night, Houses’ stunningly sensitive debut LP.

Don’t let their lyrical understatement throw you. An intimate album of echoes and half-forgotten dreams hinged on slowly building repetition, lo-fi strums, and field recordings, this is music for sound-fetishists and dreamers alike—not just those looking for a melancholy alternative to Animal Collective. The sweetly plucked opener “All Night” slides into the detuned guitar of “Endless Spring.” Meanwhile, one can almost taste the Hawaiian breezes caressing the sides of “Reds,” augmented with wanderlust-inspired lyrics, “Spent the last few months in a warm house packing our suitcases, sun in our eyes.” The duo temporarily leaves bliss pop behind for a dip into the chillwave pool of “Rose Book” and slows it down for ambient closer “Sun Fills”—each subtle shift deftly executed and seamlessly incorporated into the album’s bigger picture. A gently affecting music treat, All Night is likely to sound just as good in the dark autumn months as on the warm tropical beaches of summer. (www.housesmusic.com)

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Mr. Shuffleupagus
January 9th 2011
7:08am

Made “Reds” my “Swell Tune of the Day”: http://mrshuffleupagus.blogspot.com/2011/01/todays-swell-tune-reds.html No matter when it shows up in your playlist, it fits the mood perfectly. Unless you’re, like, a cagefighter, or a POW, I suppose