Note: Follow the "Play the Featured MP3" link at right to stream the entire Length Of Arms album from THE RECEIVER, courtesy Vital Music Records.
"I don't see the album format ever disappearing…" proclaims Casey Cooper, one half of the sibling indie-rock / dream pop duo The Receiver. "There has to peaks and valleys, light and dark, warm and cold. Otherwise an artist seems one-dimensional. The album format was why I really started loving music. I still love putting a record on and listening to it in its entirety. And I know that there are plenty of others out there who do as well. We try to make every song listenable and satisfying on its own, but then also try to fit them all into a unified whole. This way the listener can choose if they want to listen to just a couple tracks or the entire record and enjoy it either way."
Amen! Along with brother Jesse, The Receiver has dropped an album worthy of such mighty arena filling ensembles such as Radiohead, The Doves, and the ubiquitous Coldplay. Length of Arms, their flawless sophomore effort, is indeed a grand statement comprised of sophisticated melodies, somnambulant interludes, and sweeping dynamics - all rendered in a seamless song-cycle that perfectly illustrates Casey's bold, aforementioned credo. No filler, no noodeling, no self-indulgence and absolutely no guitars!
And they did it all by themselves. Nearly... Along with producer Mike Landolt, the Columbus, Ohio based duo rendered every note on LOA with the fervor of a live performance. Notes Jesse "we started performing some of the new songs shortly after our debut release to give the live show a bit more of a rock feel. If we were playing in recital halls, the material off of Decades (their debut album) would work quite well, but in a bar setting, our set required songs that would demand attention."
Four of the most up tempo offerings "Castles in the Air," "Visitor," "Skin and Bone," and "Keep The Desert" were road tested. "Mike really helped us relax and have fun while we made this record," recalls Jesse. "Sometimes you get so uptight and tense trying to make the greatest record possible, you forget to just let yourself get into what you're doing and go with it. His coaching definitely came into play with simplifying or even scrapping some of our self-indulgent segments. When it came to mixing he understood the vibe and direction we wanted to take and he knew how to compensate for no guitar being on the record with ambient and glittery keyboard pads."
Though their laundry list of influences encompasses such diverse album artists as Air, Beck, Ratatat, Pink Floyd, Bill Bruford, Yes, Jethro Tull, Roger Taylor, Elliot Smith, Blonde Redhead and the like - The Receiver maintains a distinct individuality. You can't quite pin them down. Perhaps it's because their modus operandi is quite simple. Casey commences the song-writing process, taking his initial harmonic ideas through deliberate stages of adding layers of tones, melodies, chord changes, and other compositional x's and o's. Then Jesse is presented the semi-complete song for the purpose of working out rhythms and other nuances until the track is worthy of the masses. Enter Landolt.
Says Casey "Mike worked great with us. He seemed to enjoy and respect what I had already written for the record during the pre-production phase and really helped us cut some of the fat. There were a couple different times that I had long intros, for example, and he'd recommend we trim it down. Once we tried it a couple different ways, we always seemed to agree on the final result. He also was a tremendous help in tones and textures. We had no guitars on the record, so it's always challenging to have only keyboards and still have a full spectrum of tones. Sometimes we were a little self-indulgent on drum patterns as well, and he wouldn't let us get away with it. Often times less is more, and he showed us that."
Both lads studied music formally thanks to mom. Casey even earned a bachelor's degree in composition from Ohio State. But more importantly the brothers apparently induce erotic rituals from female fans at their gigs. "It's a kind of sensual dancing" emphasizes Casey, "...trance-like I guess. I can never watch them or I get completely distracted and forget what I'm doing. But hey, if the music moves you to do that, then carry on!"
The Receiver's Length of Arms is out now on Vital Music Records.
--Tom Semioli
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The Receiver Myspace
