Morning Recordings - "The Welcome Kinetic"

Morning Recordings - The Welcome Kinetic

Morning Recordings – The Welcome Kinetic / Loose Thread

I have had Morning Recording’s sophomore effort, The Welcome Kinetic, playing in the background all morning as I shuffle through my usual checklist of mundane get-the-day-started tasks. As the band name implies, their particular brand of lush, pleasant pop is perfect for this setting, and has made this Monday morning routine flow a bit smoother and proceed with a bit less urgency. It wasn’t until I got to the title track that my attention was immediately pulled away from everything else and wholly concentrated on the music grooving out of my speakers. Sounding like a long lost 45 b-side from an early 70 soul-jazz group influenced heavily by the Blaxploitation soundtracks and taking an interest in the burgeoning fusion scene, it all of sudden makes sense why this pastoral pop collective lists David Axelrod, Ennio Morricone, Mulatu Astatke, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sven Libaek, King Tubby and even Madlib as their influences. All of a sudden, Morning Recordings seems a bit more hip than their initial vibe.

Oddly enough, the influence list doesn’t even begin to slow down there as Pramod Tummala and his cast of talented musicians pair Bobby Hutcherson with Burt Bacharach, Cal Tjader with The Sea & Cake, Luiz Bonfa with Popol Vuh, and so on and so on. It certainly sounds like a crowded cluster of particular styles, but Tummala keeps them all under wraps by infusing the pastoral post-rock with elegant melodies and accessible pop entries.

Morning Recordings was initially conceived as a solo outlet for the Chicago-based Tummala as he began to branch out from the late 90s dream-pop outfit, Melochrome. What started as a venture to record an EP’s worth of material with Barry Phipps of The Coctails blossomed into Morning Recordings debut full-length as friends all started to contribute their own talents. Featuring members of Lambchop, Zelienople, L’Altra, Poi Dog Pondering and The Lightbox Orchestra, 2005's Music for Places was a lush, intimate affair that matched breezy melodies with introspective instrumentals. The Welcome Kinetic builds off this foundation and progresses by not only matured songwriting on Tummala’s part, but sonic manipulation as he experiments more and more with recording techniques.

The album opens with “The One Hundred Hills,” which first gives light to the grooves the Morning Recordings band is capable of concocting. A vibraphone swirls in and out of a stand-up bass and jazzy drum kit before a late 60’s organ sound and acoustic guitar paves way for a brief almost-Latin trumpet outburst. The song is enveloped in it’s own popping low frequencies until it gives way to “Sugar Waltz,” the first pop tune of the record. With a teetering organ/drum foundation very reminiscent of Hymie’s Basement (a short-lived collaboration between Fog’s Andrew Broder and Why?’s Yoni Wolf), Tummala’s submerged vocals undercut Edith Frost’s elegant croon while eerie sound byproducts bubble just below the surface. “Join the Curtains” pushes the album in a faintly Latin-jazz direction with the instrumentation keenly sunken in reverb and other analog effects. All the while, elements of Morricone’s spaghetti Western soundtracks also frequently appear, as do Axelrod’s funky productions. “You’ve Been Letting Go” shimmers brilliantly amidst Tummala’s more straight-ahead singer/songwriter moments, and album closer, “I Wish I Met You Sooner”, brings everything full circle in a coda much akin to the opening track, but with more tape manipulation.

Tummala does an excellent job of redefining his initial dream-pop sound with The Welcome Kinetic. The singer/songwriter meets lush post-rock foundation is built off of with a knowledgeable list of intriguing influences from across the genre spectrum, while the production is very aware of not sounding over-digitized by incorporating analog tape effects throughout the album. It’s pastoral morning music that will certainly help ease you into the day, but there is enough exotic flair to keep more attuned listeners content. It very much is a welcomed, lulling flow that could keep you under the covers for a bit too long on those chilly winter days when the alarm clock is your worst enemy and your bed is your best friend.