4 Strings

When I listen to Vanessa van Hemert's soaring voice and Carlo Resoort's epic lush production, I feel like a naked princess riding bareback on a white horse, the wind blowing against my long blond tresses, hurtling through a forest toward a castle where my knight in shining armor will take me in his arms and proclaim that I am the only one he loves.

Sounding more like an aural sketch pad of ideas rather than the fully realized follow-up to his 2002 self-titled debut, Andrew Broder's Ether Teethnonetheless sustains the Fog founder's personal lo-fi charm from beginning to end. Soothing moodscapes and mopey singalongs abound. Pastoral psychedelia strides hand in hand with subtle turntable manipulations. And if you're into experimental birdwatching, then you've come to the right sonic sanctuary.