Philadelphia “massed guitar” ensemble Mahogany have been away for about six years since the release of Connectivity! in 2006. When I reviewed the last proper Stereolab full-length, Chemical Chords, I made a comment about other bands (Mahogany, to be very specific) outdoing them at their own game. Although one might be tempted to call a six-year absence resting on laurels, Mahogany’s first new song from the forthcoming Electric Prisms EP reaches farther out than anything resembling Stereolab. “Keystone Sonata Arrangement VII” does away with the submerged female vocals and replaces them with a prominent male voice (Mahogany’s Andrew Prinz perhaps?). The percussion rides what sounds like an ice bell for the duration of the piece, hitting a warm Appleseed Cast circa Low Level Owl place in my heart, while strings pan back and forth in the stereo field. Someone catch me; I think I just fainted.
• Mahogany: http://twitter.com/MahoganyCity
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