ALOHA

Home Acres

[PolyVinyl]

Aloha makes much of the fact that its band members live all over the country—keyboardist T.J. Lipple in Washington, D.C., singer and guitarist Tony Cavallario in Boston, bass player Matthew Gengler in Cleveland and drummer Cale Parks in Brooklyn—and periodically get together to make music. It’s fitting, then, that their sound is a little like an airplane in flight: It floats gracefully through the heavens by means of a constantly rumbling engine. The grace comes from Cavallario’s ethereal voice and Lipple’s melodic flourishes, the rumble comes from Parks’ aggressively restless drumming and Gengler’s bass serves as a pivot point linking the two distinct spheres. The innate tension (and fragile harmony) between the stratospheric and the earthbound on Home Acres reflects the innate human split between mind and body, making for music that connects on an almost subconscious level.  – CN