High Places

High Places' compilation of digital singles, 03/07-09/07, should be required listening for anyone who equates minimalism with simplicity. The release finds the Brooklyn duo mixing rhythmic webs of shakers, drums and electronic glitches with infectiously lighthearted vocal melodies. Mary Pearson's lilting lends the latter. Her sugary voice dances around pop hooks with a free-spirited imprecision that ensures her performance never turns saccharine. To back her, Rob Barber tears a page from Steve Reich's book and boils music down to layers of polyrhythmic loops, but then mixes in echo and reverb until the minimalist beat borders on tacit. The result is not a defined pulse, but a spacious ebb and flow for Pearson's carefree musings to swim through.

This recipe produces a batch of succinct indie-pop songs with a coquettish aesthetic sugarcoating their surprisingly complex sea of sounds. On "Universe," Pearson's phrases speed by like a teen chattering with a melody caught in her head, while Barber's xylophone and keyboard sounds brightly swirl through the stereo space like the bridge of "Whole Lotta Love" on Zoloft. The three-part "Banana Slugs/Cosmonaut" sprouts from an echo shrouded meditation on hermaphroditic insects, morphs into an electro-bohemian pop single, and then finally drifts off under the shade of an ethereal noise jam. The standout track, "Shared Island," offers Casio steel drums and a Caribbean cadence that's immediately endearing, gently drawing the listener into the menagerie of dichotic sounds beneath the danceable groove.

Any major complaints against High Places' 10-song revelry stem from the fact that 03/07-09/07 is a collection of singles instead of a fully conceived album. While the songs themselves skillfully flow and evolve, the album as a whole never builds momentum that transcends the tracks. Crafting each song as a single also seems to have restrained the band to a similar tempo and tone, causing some of the tracks to mesh together during passive listens. Despite these forgivable and inherent flaws, High Places has laid out an astounding blueprint for their first true album, and as Pearson joyfully reminds us on "Jump In (for Gilkey Elementary School),"If you never take the first step, you cannot go to far… So get a move on, jump in."

—Jay Watford
07.18.08

The High Places sound is a bubbly, frothy mix of tribal beats, light percussion, spacy samples, and the sweet-as-pie vocals of Mary Pearson. She and Robert Barber create a sound that is both sophisticated and childlike, and the songs are short and catchy but by no means simplistic. There is real craft behind their sound that can be lost in the seemingly primitive electronics. The duo no doubt spent a long time working to find the right blend of acoustic instruments and loops and bleeps. It pays off richly and the songs have the feel of highly polished gems. "Universe" is the highlight of the record, as Pearson's vocal careens around like a cute kid dancing happily at a birthday party and the music spins and whirls behind her. Really, the whole record feels like that. It's hard to imagine anyone hearing this band or this record and not coming away with a smile or, at the very least, a warm feeling. This collection of their singles released between March and September 2007 (plus three harder-to-find tracks) is an entrancing introduction to the band, and it stokes the fires of anticipation for their first full-length album. Thrill Jockey is lucky to have the High Places, and fans of smart, pretty folktronic world psychedelia (or whatever you care to call it) are lucky, too. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide