The Cooper brothers have been doing the two piece band thing since before it was cool.
Actually, for a while they were a three piece. Just to clarify. But I like the duo format. And not because Twenty One Pilots, The Black Keys, and The White Stripes have brought it to the mainstream.
“Wait!” You might be thinking. “Are you saying that The Receiver predates the White Stripes?”
They don’t. But they’re the only indie progressive dream pop duo that I know of. And they have singlehandedly outlasted many of their peers in the Columbus scene, managing to stay relevant at the same time. They consistently played out locally in spite of an extended dry spell between albums – the last one before All Burn was released in 2009. They found a home on KSCOPE records, a progressive label based in the UK and we find ourselves digesting All Burn today.
I knew The Receiver was something special the first time I saw them a couple of years ago at Brothers Drake Meadery with Playing to Vapors. Subsequent live performances with bands such as Empires and Royal Blood cemented their lush textures in my consciousness, including songs that would make an appearance on this album.
“To Battle an Island” and “The Summit” are two songs on All Burn that have been live staples for sometime, and hearing them in recorded form has only catapulted my appreciation of the tunes to new heights. I’m able to digest the songs in a new way – picking out nuances and melodies that were overshadowed live by the groove they set live. Jesse Cooper’s drumming is hypnotic. It’s chill yet strangely energizing. Don’t laugh, but certain moments give me the same otherworldly feeling I got while watching Cirque Du Soleil live for the first time.
Strangely energizing describes the feel of All Burn as a whole, actually. The topics addressed can’t exactly be generalized as uplifting. And yet… there’s something cathartic about them. I don’t find myself swimming in a lake of emotion. I find myself traveling alongside the songs in the darkness. Or, as I am currently, fighting the urge to sway back and forth while I type this in a coffee shop late at night.
In a densely populated dream-pop/shoegaze/progressive/whatever-you-want-call-it paradigm, All Burn holds its own. The Receiver isn’t a trend chaser, and I think you’ll get that sense when listening to this album.
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