I live near what used to be the Glenview Naval Air Station in Illinois. It was shuttered in the last round of base closings, recently enough that it still appears in most atlases and maps of the area. Developers seem to have bought nearly all the land, and in just a couple of months, have constructed what must be literally thousands of houses; the only thing to suggest the land's past utility is the old airstrip control tower, which has incongruously been left standing. It looks like they're converting the building into a mall or something.
This patch of land changed completely, almost overnight, from barracks and hangars to multifamily housing, strip mall shopping, and the now-ubiquitous mini-mansions that each get their own sixth of an acre to sit on. Anyone familiar with the old base wouldn't recognize it at all. Such rapid change is rare, and it's easy to be caught off-guard if you aren't expecting the change, which in this case I was. I was as struck by the dramatically altered landscape of this new Los Halos record. It's so incredibly divergent from the Lionstown, Pennsylvania band's eponymous debut that hardly sounds like the same band; the feel and the sound are both totally different this time around.
Where their debut was drenched in noisy explosions of guitar and built on epic, psychedelic songcraft, there's nary an outburst to be found here, as acoustic guitars have almost completely replaced electrics. They once stepped on your foot and poked you in the eye, but For Ramona sounds at times like it's floating out of an old, wooden radio with cloth-covered tube speakers. The whole record is a hazy, languid affair bordering on folk, and oddly, the change suits Los Halos well.
Led by an intriguing individual going under the pseudonym Samezvous (no word on whether he's considering changing it to make it sound less French), the contributions of the several other listed members of Los Halos are somewhat indeterminate (a quick web search reveals that one of them is named Momo Fatts, which is just too awesome for words). Samezvous kicks things off a million miles from hi-fi recording gear and drum sets, strumming old strings and singing in a tone that suggests he's got a secret to tell you. He employs this technique several times, bordering on a whisper; he's most successful on the deflated "Losst Halo" (sic), which sounds like Spiritualized's Jason Pierce losing his wife and his recording budget at the same time.
For Ramona sports about five tracks that suggest Los Halos are on the verge of developing a sound of their own invention, and a couple of them are truly stunning. The title track is an inviting, cozy waltz brimming with melody and subtle dynamics that suggests they haven't lost their penchant for volume entirely. "Gold As the Color" follows up even better, opening with a repetitive, slightly processed vocal melody and unfolding, almost like a loop-based electronica track, gradually expanding with varied, repeating layers of instrumental and vocal parts, ultimately bursting forth with melodious xylophone in the song's final third.
Later in the album, "Morning of the Sun" feels a little like American Analog Set with its buzzing organ drone, brushed drums and chorused bassline, but it's also cut through with a hook that's downright bluesy; it's weird and simultaneously wonderful. "Dagger Bones" takes that template to its logical pop extreme, brushing up against Sparklehorse and the glow of Fridmann-phonics in the process. If it wasn't as lo-fi, the record's closer "Will You Go to Heaven?" could be pretty bloated, with its "We Are the World" keyboards and Dream Academy chord progressions; it comes off instead as a quiet, humble anthem with an uncertain message in its "Will you go to Heaven? And all that's wrong with you?" refrain.
So color me very surprised. I was expecting a big, militant stomp of swirling noise, and instead ended up in a quiet housing development full of cozy charm and considered craft. Such a wholesale change in sound seems like it would be difficult to pull off, but Los Halos have not had much trouble doing it. If anything, they've gotten a lot better, and I can't wait to see where they go next.
