Royal Forest - Spillway

  by Andy Cassidy

published: 15 / 7 / 2013

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For me, the most surprising thing about Royal Forest’s Spillway is that it wasn’t produced by Dave Fridmann. For me, the colourful New Yorker’s touches are all over it, and it’s no bad thing. From the jolting introduction to ‘Everyone Who Knows You’ to the thumping chime of ‘Man-Made Lakes,’ this is an album designed to catch the listener’s attention, and it succeeds on many levels, perfectly balancing a grungy energy with geeky experimentation. This is Royal Forest’s third album, and their maturity is evident throughout the record. Opening track ‘Everyone Who Knows You’ is built around a hypnotic tape loop over which vocalist Cody Grounds weaves a neat lyric in a voice somewhere between Wayne Coyne and Neil Young. That Grounds’ vocal is reminiscent of Coyne is one of many similarities with The Flaming Lips. Royal Forest’s sound is less heavy than the Lips’, but the textures and lush arrangements are similar to Oklahoma’s finest at their very best. Despite the fantastic production evident throughout the album, for me the standout track was the relatively straightforward ‘John Denver’. It’s perhaps no surprise that this track has been chosen as a single release – it’s a good introduction to the band, and, despite being more mainstream than much of the remainder of the album, it retains much of the quirkiness and atmosphere of the other nine tracks. Third track ‘Goldwallpaper’ is pure sonic bliss. Opening with an abrasive guitar, the track develops into a cool groove reminiscent of post-David Baker Mercury Rev – yet again, Dave Fridmann’s influence is evident in the production. The album closes with the powerful 'Man-Made Lakes’. Blake Lange’s drums – superb throughout the set – are particularly effective and serve to fairly drive the track along. Indeed, the rhythm section of Lange and Eryk Lugo on bass perform solidly as the reliable backbone around which Ground and guitarist Justin Douglas weave their multi-layered tapestry of sound. I really enjoyed this album. Royal Forest sound like The Flaming Lips, MGMT and Mercury Rev channelled through Portishead with an edgy guitar sound which is almost post-punk in its ferocity. This should be a huge success – the group have talent and imagination in abundance, their material is that rare blend of radio-friendly toe-tappers and eccentric flights of psychedelic whimsy. On the back of this, I will definitely be checking out Royal Forest’s back catalogue and I’d be very surprised if I didn’t find myself buying their subsequent releases for many years to come.

Track Listing:-

1 Everyone Who Knows You
2 John Denver
3 Goldwallpaper
4 Black Hills
5 Broken Bow
6 Castro
7 Almost Done
8 Near the Spillway
9 On the Sun
10 Man-Made Lakes

Band Links:-

http://royalforest.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/royalforest
https://twitter.com/reproyalforest
http://www.songkick.com/artists/3048931-royal-forest

Label Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/Mollusc-Records-181187661960721/
https://twitter.com/molluscrecords

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