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Feb 18, 2010 Web Exclusive By Laura Studarus

I’ve always been obsessed with Europe—particularly its compact countries that allow citizens to step from border to border at will. It’s blessed geography that allows them to indulge in mini-bouts of wanderlust in the span of a single weekend, forcing them to expand their comfort zone with multiple languages, cultures, and cusines—all a stone’s throw from home. On his third album Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight, Belgian musician Dieter Sermeus (The Go Find’s bandleader) perfectly evokes this pocket-sized yearning, fine-tuning electro-spattered folk that could take up residence in any number of indie rock “countries.”

Acting like a thesis for the album, the unwieldy title track “Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight” sets the tone for meandering after-dark introspection, complete with the harbinger of nostalgia—a horn section. Factor in Sermeus’ eerily familiar voice (on “Cherry Pie” he sounds not unlike a recumbent Stephen Malkmus) and they’ve managed to create a familiar indie rock trope: the lovelorn, borderline sad-sack musician. We get it, we do.

However, even when one-upping Earlimart’s wistful sentiments (“You always full of life/me always ten steps behind”), The Go Find never gets mired in the ghosts of their past, musical or personal. Instead, they keep the tiny innovations coming, creating a well-traveled hybrid that’s both restlessly inching forward while still remaining comfortingly familiar. Wry instrumentation—an electronic synth in “It’s Automatic,” a driving bass-line during duet with Few Bit’s Karolien Van Ransbeeck on “One Hundred Percent,” a semi-obtrusive beat during heart-on-a-sleeve moment, “Stay”—all help to pull the material forward in a relentlessly subtle undercurrent of movement, allowing The Go Find to cross over from charming to covertly clever. Still not a replacement for a European mini-break, but darn it if it isn’t the next best thing. (www.thegofind.com)

Author rating: 7/10