Gorilla Warfare

Local Natives- Gorilla Manor


Trend-watchers take note: things have changed. New York spiky artiness is out, and the West Coast is in.

Bands like Fleet Foxes, The Drums and Band of Horses have all risen to due prominence, and to that list, Los Angeles’ Local Natives should be added. Debut album Gorilla Manor includes elements as diverse as sun-kissed Americana melodies, wonky Foxes’ harmonies, afrobeat percussion, obtuse lyrics and a Talking Heads cover.

Somehow all the elements gel wonderfully. This mesh of styles has drawn favourable comparisons with Grizzly Bear, but Local Natives make an altogether more immediate racket. The same melodic oddness is there in abundance, but the 70s-style Californian gleam aims for the mainstream. The joy of this record is in repeated listens, where the forward thinking attitude shines through.

Nowhere is this more obvious than on opener Wide Eyes, where a softly plucked and spaced out guitar riff gives way to an ever-growing crescendo backed by the drum patterns of Matt Frazier. The languid melodies do their best to hide it, but its Frazier’s propulsive sticks that really pushes what’s on offer here, on the beautiful opener and on other tracks like the thrilling Camera Talk. The others more than hold their ground; The Beach-Boys-gone-folk sounds are among the strongest on record in recent years.

Vocalist Taylor Rice has a yearning quality to his voice that is reminiscent of James Mercer, giving everything an emotional weight, especially the delicate Who Knows, Who Cares, where he reassures a lover that “Even with your doubts it’s ok/Take into account that it’s not about to change”. There’s an honesty there that just avoids slipping into earnestness.

The rest of his lyrics carry an obliquely poetic, twisting the image of a sunset in Sun Hands into weird new shapes (“They wrap her tail/In a taunting gesture that seems to sing out loud”), elsewhere taking on a traffic jam in World News (“But right after you complete your merge, the lane you started in gets going”). These might be familiar themes and metaphors, but the indie side of proceedings means they avoid cliché.

The record takes more risks than expected also. Songs carry jabs of sudden electric guitar here, whooshing sounds there and a subtle mandolin backing courtesy of Ryan Hahn. It also manages to take switches in tone further than Fleet Foxes, jumping from quiet introspection to sheer rocking out in a matter of seconds, best found on Heads cover Warning Sign and Sun Hands.

This is an excellent debut from an exciting band, who lose some of their live intensity on record but make up for it with beautiful production sheen and ideas that reveal themselves slowly. One to watch for sure.

4 out of 5

Essential Tracks:
Sun Hands
World News
Who Knows, Who Cares