Rachel Taylor Brown - "World So Sweet" CD

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, pianist/songwriter Rachel Taylor Brown's seventh recording is a lovely and haunting indie-pop set. A spiritual sister to Lisa Germano, "World So Sweet" gets dark and unsettling beneath the sunny baroque pop song structures. Idiosyncrasy and individuality? Rachel Taylor Brown has them both in spades. I salute her. (Penury Pop)

Rachel's own website

Grails - "Deep Politics" album

Portland, Oregon's Grails are a veteran instrumental outfit who specialize in spacious, moody psychedelic rock. "Deep Politics" is their sixth full-lengther, and it opens with "Future Primitive"-- a moody and textural guitar-scape that brings to mind a dusky Western expanse. It's all very dramatic and cinematic, to be certain. The title track is piano-led chamber pop meets post-rock, full of mystery and tension. "Almost Grew My Hair" is a trippy and evolving psychedelic space monster, dynamically moving from David Gilmour-style rock solos to darker opium den haziness. This is some potent stuff, with the perfect balance of clarity and foggy abandon.

Taken as a whole, "Deep Politics" takes the listener on a journey through foreign lands, natural landscapes, and mind-bending narcotic excursions, all safely and within a relatively concise 47 minutes. Superb work, and all worth exploring. (Temporary Residence Limited)

Grailspace

Grails site

Valet - "Naked Acid" CD

The second solo album from Portland guitarist/vocalist/inner space traveler Honey Owens, 'Naked Acid' is a brilliant piece of twilight psychedelia with some nicely out-there touches. But unlike others (not naming names), she wisely never fully loses sight of the songs themselves - pulling them back in when they wander off too far. Owens' drifty, distant vocals are seemingly pulled from another ghostly dimension, and her guitar is both melodic and ferocious, often at the same time. Pieces like the unforgettably-titled 'Fuck It' are wispy slices of proto-ambient blues, if that makes any sense, with only a spartan drum amidst the layers of guitar noise and lysergically-driven effects. 'Fire' almost returns to Earth (hah) and is as close to a pop-song as Owens is likely to pen, while the closer, 'Streets', boasts some surprisingly jacked-up some drum programming alongside the jagged drones. Astoundingly beautiful and individual work here. (Kranky)