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MP3 The Soft Hills - Painted World
5 MP3 Songs in this album (25:41) !
Related styles: FOLK: Psych-folk, POP: Ambient Pop
People who are interested in Radiohead Sigur Rós Iron & Wine should consider this download.
Details:
The Soft Hills are the musical adventure of singer/songwriter Garrett Hobba, bassist/guitarist Drew Dresman, drummer/pianist/vocalist Caleb Heinrich, and keyboardist/guitarist/harpist Brittan Drake. A Seattle-based band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as experimentation, their songs draw from a wide range of influences from folk to indie rock to psychedelic, drawing on literary and philosophical themes as well as music, and incorporating experiences from dreams and the extraterrestrial. Their unique blend of acoustic instruments, layered vocals, and guitar textures bring to mind alt-rock heavy hitters such as Sigur Rós, The Flaming Lips, and Mojave 3.
After completing a Master’s program in Eastern Philosophy, Hobba moved from Santa Fe to Seattle in the summer of 2007 to pursue music. He soon hooked up with Heinrich and they began carving out arrangements for new songs. It wasn’t until Dresman came along that the group fully began to realize their vision. Dresman had been touring the last few years with Justin King and was looking for a new project where he could play a more active role in the creative process. Feeling an immediate kinship with Heinrich and Hobba, Dresman saw the project as a ripe opportunity. As a trio, they started performing at cafés and recording an EP. Friends were invited to the sessions to help lay down tracks. During the spring, an old college friend of Heinrich’s, Brittan Drake, listened to the recordings and, recognizing something special about their music, expressed an interest in playing with them. Shortly thereafter, Drake began performing with the group, adding subtle touches of Rhodes piano, guitar, and harp, giving their songs ambience and flavor.
With a growing sense of recognition from fans and musicians, the band found themselves developing a more focused and crafted sound, playing better venues, and embracing the local scene. In order to create a deeper experience for the audience, Dresman prepared a series of visual images—fiery embers floating upwards into a night sky, ripples on the surface of a lake, and footage from the French classic, The Red Balloon—and began projecting them onto the stage during their performance. Along with mind-altering visuals, the band’s inclusion of unusual instruments (harp, glockenspiel, and melodihorn) and three-part vocal harmonies has made their show a rare spectacle pleasing both to the eye and ear.
The Soft Hills give a tantalizing first glimpse of their music with their self-released EP, Painted World. The record features a handful of acoustically-toned songs, rich with harmonies, sparse layers of instrumentation and heart-felt lyrics. Recorded at a local elementary school, the band enjoyed playing many of the children’s instruments that were available, including a xylophone and toy bells. Indeed, one senses a playful, child-like quality to the EP which can be felt from the first track, “Apples”, as Hobba sings about rolling apples off a roof, building a boat, and sailing along the cold northern coast. Even on “Spent”—a song whose lyrics evoke a dark and desperate existential questioning of life—the gentle beauty of The Soft Hill’s melodies remain the same. With this intimate and organic record, the band covers a lot of territory. From the Hemingway-inspired “Hills Like White Elephants” to “Diamond Road”, which depicts the visionary journey of a wanderer, Painted World is at once timeless and a breath of fresh air.
Plans for the upcoming year include touring the Northwest (Olympia, Portland, Vancouver areas) and playing summer music festivals. With their repertoire of new material, which includes a number of more sonically-charged arrangements, the band is in the process of planning their first full-length record.
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