Foxes in Fiction

Free music enthusiast Warren Hildebrand doesn't get that if you have a product people want, you can actually make a bit of money off it. Along with a few EPs, he's put this album up for grabs, which should easily find music blog scourers rushing to PayPal accounts. Hildebrand claims Swung From the Branches wasn't meant to have a full-length "feel," and he's right. Released physically on cassette, he used the two-side format to explore different aspects of Foxes in Fiction. Described as a "long, dreamlike hallucination," side A is ultimately one extended song that fades in and out of consciousness via disembodied vocals, serene noise and waving organs. "Bronte Balloons" acts as the album's divide, delicately ushering Hildebrand's ambient leanings into a B-side of what he calls "lucid pop songs." By comparison, they're certainly more lucid, but like Bradford Cox's Atlas Sound, Foxes in Fiction's songs always come off sounding sleepy and dreamlike. Still, the second half is what will grab ears. "Snow Angels" is as heavenly as its title, as Hildebrand's whisper converges beautifully with the gentle guitar strum, tambourine and vibraphone, and "To Go Home" puts you into a hypnagogic state, with its spinning synthesizers. Swung From the Branches is the perfect lesson in the magic you can achieve via a bit of insomnia at five in the morning.