Macha Loved Bedhead - Bedhead Loved Macha

On the surface, it is difficult to align the drowsy, laconic whisper of Bedhead with Macha's exotic amalgam of rock and gamelan. Once one digs beneath that surface, however, the subtle similarities of the two begin to reveal themselves. The music of each band has a shimmering quality that is hypnotic and characterized by a somber, understated yearning for transcendence. Both bands create music that has its own distinctive mood, music that is absolutely seductive and enveloping. And with the snail-paced minimalism of "Mirror" off their second album, See It Another Way, Macha proves their sound to be a kissing cousin to the slow-spun beauty of Bedhead -- or perhaps brother is a more apt term. The core of both bands -- Bedhead's songwriting brothers, Matt and Bubba Kadane, and Macha's sibling combo, Joshua and Mischo McKay -- grew up together in Wichita Falls, TX and formed their first band together in high school. Each set of brothers was a fan of the other's respective musical output, and each wanted to record with the other but was prohibited from doing so by time, place, and circumstance. The two pairs, however, arrived at a concept that would enable them to once again make music together: The Kadane brothers mailed off an eight-track tape of skeletal songs-in-progress consisting mostly of drum and guitar parts; the McKays then took those songs to completion by filling in the remaining spaces. The result of the partnership is the Macha Loved Bedhead EP. The album title inconspicuously references one unforeseen complication in the process: Before the music was completed, Bedhead disbanded. Given such circumstances, the EP is permeated with a sense of loss, as if it is part eulogy. Despite that insinuated tone, it is a mostly triumphant recording that manages to sound like both bands, and neither. Each of the four collaborative compositions is sensational. The music variously evokes My Bloody Valentine (the gorgeous feedback-psychedelia of "Never Underdose"), R.E.M. ("You and the New Plastic," an angular, punkish drone), and the Velvet Underground in all the right ways. The makeshift band fills the songs with glassy vibes, stoned jazz drumming, and discriminating Balinese instrumentation, erecting a kind of hung-over spirituality that is almost euphoric in its intensity. They let loose their more experimental sides on the final two cuts, creating an ambient collage out of 80 four-second tracks of creepy Poltergeist-like ambience ("How Are Your Windows?"), then executing a funereal organ/touch-tone phone/drum rendition of Cher's ubiquitous (some might say cloying) 1999 hit, "Believe," which turns into a sincerely mournful tune. It makes for a vaguely anticlimactic denouement for an otherwise sparkling work. ~ Stanton Swihart