by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Last year Philadelphia's Data, a project that includes Nina Ryser (Palberta, Shimmer), Gabe Adels, and Eve Alpert (Palm) quietly released their debut album, Divine Creature, via Single Girl, Married Girl Records. While it flew way under the radar, the record was a refreshing piece of anything goes experimental music, built on flattened notes, twee harmonies, and ramshackle rhythms that sounded thrown together, and all the better for it. Delivered with a sloppy charm but a complicated vision, Data made music that fits together with their main projects, while straying far enough from the path to never confuse them. The band, now simply the duo of Ryser and Adels, returns with Invisible Witnesses, due out in July, and a string of tour dates together with Lily & Horn Horse (all dates below).
"Penitentiary," the album's first single, is so fantastically off-kilter, Ryser and Adels' instant chemistry making their presence felt with a gorgeous harmony that radiates over a breezy synth organ that sounds a bit like a detached version of America's "A Horse With No Name". It's only a passing reference though as Data warp their ideas, gliding with sharp melodies and tinkering breaks in the atmosphere. It sounds sweet and innocent, a voyage down a long empty road, into the unknown with nothing more than a jangly melody. As the duo hit the hook (or what constitutes as the hook), they dig into a propulsive downward spiral, the melody lost as chaos creeps in, the bass digging frantically as the song prods and pulls in every direction.
Tour Dates:
07/19 - Hudson, NY @ The Spotty Dog *
07/20 - Binghamton, NY *
07/21 - Paris, ON @ Strangewaves Fest *
07/22 - Toronto, ON *
07/23 - Petersborough, ON *
07/24 - Montreal, QC @ La Sotterenea w/ H. de Huetz, Chiffres *
07/29 - Providence, RI
07/30 - Brooklyn, NY @ The Glove
08/03 - Philadelphia, PA @ Tundra Dome w/ Dolly & Kolb *
* w/ Lily & Horn Horse