The American Analog Set

American Analog Set

Know by Heart (Tiger Style) Normally, Austin's American Analog Set isn't a band you listen to when you want to get things accomplished. Usually it engenders just sitting around listening to the leaves rustle, maybe shuffling through some papers. That's why the new AmAnSet offering seemed like an odd choice to listen to while preparing to move. You'd think it would lead to a three-hour session of sifting through detritus, looking at old photos, anything but actually putting items in a box and carrying them away. Then, Know by Heart starts piping through the speakers, and -- whaddya know? -- things start happening. Boxes fill with stuff. The trash can fills. By damn, this band has a new life. A new energy. A move to New York's Tiger Style Records (home of slowcore folksters Ida and post-rockers Tristeza) and a more focused approach has paid big dividends. Still, just because the opener is titled "Punk as Fuck" doesn't mean the band has cranked up the overdrive. It's the same breezy beast, but it moves along with more urgency. Trap man Mark Smith sounds truly busy now, whereas before, his playing was halfway frozen in time, à la Low's Mimi Parker. Now that Farfisa player Lisa Roschmann is no longer in the fold, Smith and Co. are free to let loose with a Stereolab-Krautrock beat on "Like Foxes Through Fences" without sounding like 'Lab wannabes. Copious vibes and marimbas now enhance the still-present vintage synths, giving Andrew Kenny's vocals more room to breathe, and helping drive the Analog Set to their most taut and energetic album to date.