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"El Toppo Llama Farmers |
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Sudden, soft, sincere, slightly left of center… inasmuch as "pigging out on doggy fudge" might suggest. Llama Farmers are a late nineties product still getting their wings and with the music presented on this "El Toppo" concoction, the question may not be whether they get them, it's more like, will they ever come down off this cumulous cloud they dancing on. A more eclectic Pop/Rock plaything you're liable to never hear in this lifetime; a more inundated lyric hasn't seen the light of day probably since the days of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Not suggesting a prim, proper and elevated poetic nature by any means but a mock sincerity colored with a touch of irony and midnight wanderlust-and a knack for oft repeated verses and assorted timber that sweeps in like a gust of wind, then leaves in a swirling silence of dead leaves. Catchy, quite mobile, near but often distant, Llama Farmers, mysterious as their name, are big on intrusive arrangements and there are several within the pleasantly distinguishable passages where pensive strings meet pervasive power chords in a folk-inspired alternative rush. "El Toppo," smoothly rides then jumps the wake of their '99 "Dead Letter Chorus" debut with a furthering of emotionally tilted, sometimes jilted exuberance cut for a post-mod Indie-Rock college age crowd gleefully willing to yank the mainstream feeding tube and live a little while learning the true nature of music as art. Released by Beggars Banquet Records Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |