Levek – Look a Little Closer
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When a band deems itself belonging to the “Mickey-Mouse Tribal” genre, it’s difficult to know exactly what they mean. I take it to mean music that’s paying homage to another time—a sort of nostalgic music. Still, what does this entail? For Levek it means music coated in synthesizers and old-fashion elements of sound that bring you back to yesteryear, but which yesteryear is this band evoking? The 70’s, the 60’s, or neither?
To be honest, this album is a little all over the place: on one song you’ll find chill experimental music, on another you’ll find a track that sounds like something you’d hear in an elevator, and another evokes Grizzly Bear in its slow burning intensity. While all of the songs on Look a Little Closer fall along the same level of calm, there is a large disparity in the sound of this band from song to song, and this overall discontinuity disrupts the flow of such a record.
This disparity is present at the beginning of the album, until the sound that Levek decides to stick with appears. The first song, “Black Mold Grow,” has a chill, 1970’s vibe to it, complete with the meek vocals of front man David Levesque. The track is soft and seems to float on a layer of thin air, bouncing on light percussion and sugary harmonies, but then it bursts into a disco-y sound at the end, with layers of warmth that give it a full and rich texture. Such rich texture dissolves by “Terra Treasures,” the third song on this album, which reminds me of a song you’d hear only in an elevator; the synthesized organ and the flat percussion doesn’t really go anywhere. Fourth up is “With a Slow Burn” whose bubbling serenity calls the sound of Grizzly Bear to mind. However, the second half of the album falls into the exact opposite pattern in which the songs begin to blend together in their similarities.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m all about diversity within a band’s sound, as it is what prevents all of the music on an album from meshing into one giant song. There is, however, a difference between continuity and the over-repetition of sounds. Look a Little Closer could use a little more of both of these elements in separate doses.
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/08-Girl-In-The-Fog.mp3]Download:Levek – Girl In The Fog [MP3]