Our Brother The Native – Sacred Psalms 

Discovered online in late 2005, Our Brother The Native consists of university friends sending beats and samples back and forth across North American (these guys hail from both California and Michigan) to create some of the most textural and ground breaking sounds circulating the current indie scene.  Their debut album, Tooth and Claw, was released in July 2006, and was followed by the texturally expansive, Make Amends, For We Are Merely Vessels, (February 2008), and an EP, Parting Marrows (October 2008). Their latest release, Sacred Palms, sees a slight change in line-up with founding members Josh Bertram and Chaz Knapp carrying the OBTN torch forward with the help of Kevin McKay on violin.   

This album is nothing if not a constant surprise.  Ambient yet totally engaging, its layers and the ability for them to enlighten and entertain are seemingly never-ending.  Using voice samples, bells, whistles, steel drums, percussion, spoken word samples, field noise and including influences as broad as bluegrass, Arabic, African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Balkan, and Javanese Gamelan, the word eclectic fails to convey the broad influences looked to by this band.   

As a result of the diverse sources of their inspiration as well as their unpredictability in terms of the tools they use to make their sounds, there is an intense desire to keep listening to Sacred Psalms in order to discover where it will lead you next.  Strange combinations of instrumentation become totally engaging and intriguing.  For example the track All Grown uses steel drums with a marching drum laid over the top – two opposite ends of the drumming spectrum that here, work completely in unison.   

Although comparisons to other modern bands can be made (Sigur Ros, Flaming Lips, Mum, Animal Collective to name a few), comparisons are all they are.  OBTN are clearly not trying to replicate anything that has been done before.  Their music pushes the boundaries and although it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, you’ve got to admire their conviction for putting something completely original into an arena that is so often based on the same old formula. 

Lee Hutchison