reax music magazine :: music + culture » Reviews » Rachel Taylor Brown - Half Hours With the Lower Creatures

This record leads off with a seven minute ambient recording of what sounds like the back room to a bar or a restaurant where the phone keeps ringing. Insert chimed piano on cue with ethereal vocalizations in the background, and you are ready for an interesting record of rather untraditional boundaries, but clever pop arrangements. Miss Brown likes ugly noises, sharp harmonies and Geraldine Fibbers style guitars. She also likes fun lyrics, occasional operatics, Beatlesque chord changes and the Omnichord (google it, trust me). This record keeps you guessing in a good way, and every song has its distinct character.  Recommended, but someone please pick up that darn phone.