Meanderthals
Desire Lines
Release Date: May 12, 2009
Genre(s): Indie, Electronic
Record label: Smalltown Supersound
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Album Review: Desire Lines by Meanderthals
Great, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Desire lines are undesignated paths created by foot-traffic erosion simply because they're where people want to go. Desire Lines walks -- strolls, ambles, struts (occasionally), and yes, meanders -- down well-trodden and welcoming musical trailways, toward no destination in particular, just for the simple pleasures of the journey. The routes are familiar and instinctually inviting, even if the signage is vague and imprecise: dub, psychedelic, downtempo, ambient, post-rock, folk, with occasional spur trails pointed toward the Tropics, or the discotheque, or into outer space.
Based on rating 7.5/10
If you're wondering how the improbable pun "meanderthal" has entered the insular music lexicon twice in two years-- first as the title of Miami metalheads Torche's 2008 sophomore album and now as the moniker of the downtempo trio composed of the Idjut Boys and Rune Lindbaek-- look to academia. Matthew Tiessen of the University of Alberta, bless him, has defined the meanderthal as an urban monkeywrench, an inhibitor of the flow of modern life. Meanderthals (the group), presumably not buying what Tiessen's selling, have rebranded this persona as a loveable, harmless drifter, which aligns them philosophically with every jam band ever and possibly Asher Roth.
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