Review: Kellarissa, Flamingo

Though Flamingo manages to maintain a certain cohesiveness throughout, its individual tracks are largely hit or miss.

Kellarissa, FlamingoArmed with a symphonic keyboard and a ton of loop and delay machines, former P:ano and Choir Practice collaborator Larissa Loyva employs softly loping rhythms, crisscrossing vocal harmonies, heaps of synth sounds and ethereal melodies to create a cocktail of otherworldly pop on Flamingo, her first album as Kellarissa. The Canadian indie artist’s voice ranges from girlish and playful (“Flamingo”) to soft and serene (“I’ll Sing of Kings”) to hypnotic and even possessed (“Carrying On”); her multi-layered harmonies slice through the muted synth lines of the standout “Night Wind,” a meditation on—you guessed it—night wind. The title track has a pastel 1950s pop sheen to it while the vocoder effects, circular keyboard patterns, and simple drum loop and synth bassline of “Tiny Things” recall the electronic pop popularized by bands like Air. The final stretch of the very brief Flamingo consists of a series of dirges, including the organ-filled “When Did I Become…” and “Sun Song,” the meditative chant “Virta Vie,” and the traditional Finnish song “Taivas on Sininen ja Valkoinen,” a sequencing move that threatens to—but doesn’t quite—sink the entire album, and though Flamingo manages to maintain a certain cohesiveness throughout, its individual tracks are largely hit or miss.

Score: 
 Label: Mint  Release Date: September 9, 2008  Buy: Amazon

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

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