Cumulus Mood Twang by Flowchart (Review)
I don’t use this word to often when I describe the albums that I own and listen to, but in the case of Cumulus Mood Twang, I will: exultant. This album is full of bright, golden cheeriness — an innocent and nostalgic sound that revels in itself.
The My Bloody Valentine and Seefeel comparisons can and will be drawn, but Flowchart is not a knock-off. Whereas bands like The Lassie Foundation might focus on the “pop” side of MBV’s dreampop sound, Flowchart is straight dreamy. Cumulus Mood Twang finds Flowchart taking the best of MBV and Seefeel’s musical sounds and distilling them, enhancing them, and creating a record that is just gorgeous.
The album begins with “Envelopment Continuum,” a dancy, Saint Etienne-ish track with piano twinklings, breathy vocal snippets, and strings that could be considered “danceable” but only as angels dance. It devolves into fluttering flute snippets à la MBV’s monolithic Loveless. These fluttering butterfly-esque sounds permeate throughout Cumulus Mood Twang, making it the perfect album to complement Loveless. “Another Word Explodes” sounds a lot like Seefeel’s darker, more angular stuff. More breathy female vocal snippets (there aren’t any proper lyrics in this album, just a lot of “ohs” and “ahs” dragged on and out) that twist around beats and droning loopy pieces.
“Rust A La Glare” is the highlight of the album for me. Golden clouds of synth melodies, an airy, short beat, more of those delightful wispy vocal fragments, and stray guitar melodies all come together to make you feel that all is right with the world and that it doesn’t hurt to see the sun shine every once in awhile. About 2 minutes into this song, a twisted children’s choir pipes up as the beat picks up and beautiful strings just rush you towards musical climax. It all devolves into more strings and synths à la Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James Album and flows into the serene, understated “Grain Of Apology.”
Overall, I really really like this album. There are some that will listen to it and say that it’s a MBV, Seefeel and/or Stereolab knock-off. But don’t believe them. Yeah, this album’s sound is definitely influenced by those bands. But it takes the best elements of those artists and congeals those sounds into an effort that is simply priceless without sounding like knock-offs or thieves. If you are a fan of “dreampop” or “shoegazer” music or whatever, then Cumulus Mood Twang is highly recommended. Not many albums bring a tear to my eye because the music is so joyful and exultant (there’s that word again), but this one did.
