JAPANCAKES: The Sleepy Strange
By Jim Allen
Unlike many bands that fall under the post-rock banner, Athens, Georgia's Japancakes generate considerable warmth and an undeniable organic quality. While there are no vocals on their second full-length album, and the purposefully minimalist approach to composition generates little in the way of conventional forward motion, The Sleepy Strange draws the listener in with its sunny tones and earthy touches (note the swaths of gorgeous pedal steel that coat the album-opening "The Waiting"). Cellist Heather McIntosh - who also works with Elf Power and Of Montreal - is a key presence throughout, providing thick drones in more austere moments and semi-classical counterpoint to the keyboards in the airier sections, and she's the perfect mate for the naturalistic pedal-steel flurries. Guitarist Eric Berg is the leader of Japancakes, which is actually something of a side project for many of its members, but he remains a Zen-like presence in the background, providing a chordal framework for the band's post-rock adventurism and earthbound Americana.
