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                        Balmorhea - Stranger
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Artist...............: Balmorhea
Album................: Stranger
Genre................: General Alternative Rock
Source...............: NMR
Year.................: 2012
Ripper...............: NMR
Codec................: LAME 3.98
Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality..............: CBR 192, (avg. bitrate: 192kbps)
Channels.............: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz
Tags.................: , ID3 v2.3
Information..........: http://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2012-09-28/balmorhea-stranger/
Included.............: NFO
Covers...............: Front 

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                       Tracklisting
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   1. Balmorhea - Days                                        [08:47]
   2. Balmorhea - Masollan                                    [05:14]
   3. Balmorhea - Fake Fealty                                 [04:31]
   4. Balmorhea - Dived                                       [03:35]
   5. Balmorhea - Jubi                                        [04:58]
   6. Balmorhea - Artifact                                    [07:09]
   7. Balmorhea - Shore                                       [05:28]
   8. Balmorhea - Pyrakantha                                  [06:23]
   9. Balmorhea - Islet                                       [01:08]
  10. Balmorhea - Pilgrim                                     [06:48]

Playing Time.........: 54:05
Total Size...........: 73.98 MB

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Strange how distance can bring people together in new and profound ways. 
Recorded over two years primarily at Tortoise's Soma Electronic Music Studios 
in Chicago, Balmorhea's Stranger came into focus over great distances and 
lengths of time, with multi-instrumentalist Michael Muller in Brooklyn and 
guitarist/pianist Rob Lowe secluded in Alpine. The local ensemble was born to 
constant transition, forever in search of a fleeting moment. From the 
sketched intimacy of its eponymous debut in 2007 and youthful splendor of 
2008's Rivers Arms, to the colonial expanse of 2009 breakthrough All Is Wild, 
All Is Silent and the eerie, restrained tranquility of 2010's Constellations, 
Balmorhea moves and morphs like weather patterns. Balmorhea's fifth studio 
album marks a dramatic transformation in approach and temperament, 
packing a visceral immediacy only teased with last year's Live at Sint-
Elisabethkerk. The compositions here are more self-contained and 
complicated, with everything û swelling strings, wordless vocals, xylophone, 
and steel drums û in its rightful place without sounding overly composed. 
"Pyrakantha," meanwhile, bridges the band's past and present. A soft trance 
of pensive guitars fades into a bed of static synthesizers, which then settles 
into a guitar groove subtly propelled by the nuanced percussion of stellar 
new addition Kendall Clark. Centerpiece "Artifact" uncovers an epic unto 
itself, a three-part suite venturing into prog rock. Layers of guitar arpeggios 
and rolling piano top circling guitar loops in a game of chutes and ladders 
between Muller and Lowe that climaxes akin to Explosions in the Sky by the 
way of Robert Fripp's The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior. With Stranger, 
Balmorhea finally comes into full bloom. (CD release: Mohawk, Friday, Sept. 
28.)
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