Make a Rising

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future, and indie rock just keeps getting weirder, weirder, and weirder. West Philadephia’s Make a Rising make strangely fascinating songs that have piles of different parts and sections within them and run all over the musical map in regards to what sounds they’re covering without ever sounding too specifically like anything that’s come before them. Slightly psychedelic, hugely cute and chamber orchestra-like, Make a Rising move around with Olivia Tremor Control-style studio trickery, only without the indie rock riffs, but Animal Collective and Minus Story are the only real touchstones for what Make a Rising sound like. Most of their melodies are piano-driven, though the five-piece band also employ interesting percussion, ukulele and something called the "saxaflute” to space out their sound. They’re also prone to occasionally whipping out the guitars and letting the music briefly rock off, but like everything on this collection of suites, there’s a strict adherence to brevity that doesn’t allow the band to explore any mode of expression for too long. This approach creates a sense of playful wonderment and keeps things moving in an interesting way, but also works to distance the listener and doesn’t give much for him or her to hold on to or get wrapped up in. This is an indie-prog fantasy from a band who certainly don’t lack ambition.