Family

iTunes Review

As with some of their Hardly Art label mates (Pica Beats, the Dutchess & the Duke), there is a sort of otherworldliness to Le Loup’s music, and Family — the band’s sophomore outing — also carries the pleasant whiff of maturity and sureness. Trading in synth programming for a solid five-piece ensemble rich with five throats and real instruments, the songs here glisten with layer upon layer of light-as-air vocals, the organic sounds of banjo, guitar and piano (only occasionally toyed with electronically), and a plethora of percussion. Some tracks have a playful tribal vibe (“Forgive Me,” “Family”), some are spiritual and churchly (“Saddle Mountain,”  “Go East”), and others have a coolly sophisticated feel (hints of jazz permeate “Beach Town,” while “Grow” has a faint exotica flavor). Where Le Loup’s debut, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, hinted at majestic possibility but was far more intimate and restrained (it was mostly a solo project by Le Loup founder Sam Simkoff, whose reverb'd voice often conjures Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold), Family takes the soul of Le Loup’s music to loftier heights.