MIND INVERSION

Ancient Crux is the new project of 19 year old California resident Travis Von Sydow (he’s also a member of Rapid Youth). His debut EP entitled Interracial Coupling, out now on Family Time records, is one of the most excited and refreshing pieces of new music I’ve heard in quite some time. From the second the record starts, the twang of the guitar and the stomp of the bass throw the listener into a musical time warp. While I’ve never listened to Roy Orbison myself, every other review or snippet I’ve read about Ancient Crux has compared this EP to him. And it’s kind of what I always imagined Orbison sounding like too. That’s not the point though, what’s important is that Ancient Crux seemingly transcends time, as though Sydow recorded this in 1954 and it was found last week. It’s that twang and stomp, and yet at the same time I don’t know what it is at all. Ancient Crux is just so mysterious, there, maybe that’s what my love affair is all about. The fact that it isn’t front page news on Paste or P4k. It simply feels nice to listen to an album that’s as intimate and warm as Interracial Coupling can be. 

No song on the album runs over three minutes, my personal favorite “In Teen Dreams” runs a mere 2:35, making the album a quick play that can be over just when you’re starting to really love it. Here is where I get tripped up every listen. I turn Interracial Coupling on, listen through it, play it again, and again. You get it? I guess what I’m trying to get at is the greedy listener inside of me trying to come out and scream “take a risk, do something experimental!” The album is amazing though and I’m not knocking it in any sense, but I would have loved to heard what Sydow would have done on a five minute version of any of the tracks. 

“Sha la la la, oo0, oo0. In dreams upon an endless beach, we’d dance where the sun bows and sleeps.”

That fucking twang and stomp. That simplicity, nostalgia, emptiness, or whatever feeling Interracial Couplings provokes in you. It’s apparently an album that wreaks of “something Roy Orbison shit out” (quote from their myspace). One thing is for sure, it’s a lovely album and a rare treat to the music community. At this point it’s limited to 150 copies and it’s going fast, so GET IT HERE NOW! sold out a few days back. Ancient Crux’s next release it due out this spring on Hi Shadow records… on tape release only (fuck). 

9.5 who the fuck releases something on tape only?! out of 10

mp3: Ancient Crux – “In Teen Dreams”

Dig Deeper:  Myspace   Family Time records

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 3:02 am and is filed under Music Reviews with tags ancient crux, family time records, mp3, New Release, rapid youth, roy orbison, tape, travis von sydow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.