Balmorhea - River Arms

Balmorhea - River Arms
Release date: 12/02/2008
Label: Western Vinyl

Texan duo of Rob Lowe and Michael Muller, otherwise known as Balmorhea, named after a small Texan town of Lowe's childhood upbringing. "River Arms" 14 sparse movements blend folk and classical styles to create beautiful daydream music that have got me through many miserable commutes to work.

Their songs evoke contradictory feelings of cold and warmth - melancholy and joy.

Personal highlights are the acoustic guitar playing on "Wind and Sea" and the delicate finger picking combined with a warm shimmering cello backdrop on "The Summer". Also, "Greyish Tapering Ash" slow train rattles along like a mysterious soundtrack to something that could be cinematic. Which then blends straight into the beautiful piano piece "Baleen Morning" filling you with hope and breathlessness. I only wish they would have dropped "Context" which is 4 plus minutes of distant voices and pointlessness. This is only a minor blip though, as a whole, "River Arms" is a fantastic album that should be enjoyed as much as possible.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10