All in the Golden Afternoon

(Mind Expansion)

The name comes from a hallucinogenic Lewis Carroll poem, but the newly married Rachel Staggs (Experimental Aircraft) and Carlos Jackson (the Shells) have infused their local debut as All in the Golden Afternoon with more looking glass, less rabbit hole. The title track is a reverb cruise through shoegaze’s heyday and Ex Air’s waves of sound, while the drum-free drone of “Anymore Anyway” echoes the Spacemen 3’s “Ecstasy Symphony,” both marbled down by Staggs’ breathy purr. “Sunshine Is Fine” is instrumental dream-pop bliss, organ and guitar mirroring each other’s feedback, and “Future Faster Now” revels in a Stereolab-ish space-pop polish. Bookended by a short intro and outro, “Garden of Live Flowers” and “The Lion and the Unicorn,” All in the Golden Afternoon‘s six short songs never quite get to ask Alice, but they’re nice aural Xanax in the meantime.

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This article appears in February 15 • 2008.

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