Welcomed into the attention of the well-deserving Numero, an American label dedicated to the exhumation and repackaging of valuable but forgotten bands, the American Analog Set have undergone a truly honorable treatment, with the re-release in two tranche of their repertoire. If the first collection “New Drifters” included the first albums (1996-99), “Destroy Destroy Destroy” presents their post-2000 production: “Know By Heart” (2001), “Promise Of Love” (2003) and “Set Free” (2005), plus an EP and various songs.
This is a golden opportunity to rediscover a silently fundamental band, with an aesthetic as minimalist as it is peculiar, which has evidently inspired contemporary or subsequent bands such as Death Cab For Cutie (who have perhaps also clumsily attempted to imitate their refrain and progressions especially in later albums).
Orchestrated around essential acoustic instrumentation but bringing together a full and layered sound, unlike other contemporary slowcore bands, the Austin band's songs make powerful use of musical space, with suggestive interactions between instruments and timbres and excursions into adjacent but not necessarily communicating scenes (Sea and Cake's “The Kindness of Strangers”).
Compared to the first records, the band's expressiveness certainly becomes even more recognizable, permeated with a perceptible authority in the definition of its own soundwhich almost imposes itself on the listener (“The Green Green Grass”, the exceptional “Everything Ends In Spring”) – also thanks to the skilful use of repetition which has always been a peculiar and founding characteristic of the band, which has earned it the label of “slow-kraut” (“Fool Around”, “Cool Kids Keep”).
A musical immersion in which you remain ensnared, between brush movements on the drums, the characteristic punctuations of the keyboard, the visceral contortions of the guitar, and the monotonous and hypnotizing voice of Andrew Kenny (“Come Home Baby Julie, Come Home”), an experience not to be missed.
06/21/2026
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
