The Fun Years: God Was Like, No

Label: Barge Recordings

Kind of feels like I've been waiting for this sound for a long time (news to me that this group has several albums and self-released home recordings) — rough waves set in mellow ambient seas, a sound to placate all fans of shoegaze and the like, without really settling into that genre. Quite a bit like the Books, the Fun Years is a duo that deploys familiar tools (guitar loops, feedback, a PhD, dry internal humor, textures of varying textures and some computerized trickery) to create music of distinct singularity. On God Was Like, No, though, Ben Recht is credited with just baritone guitar and Isaac Sparks with just the turntable. Whatever — I don't care to figure out how they do it; I just wanna swim in tunes like "Division of Labor (TV Track)," a coarsely glistening track, and "Makes Sense to Me," within which a tremeloed guitar raises faint sensations of unease — though very faint. Vini Reilly (a.k.a. Durutti Column) would seem to be a prime influence, but Recht and Sparks probably have plenty of ideas on their own. A definite must-have for the discerning, searching fan of modern ambient and electric guitar music. (M.L. Thrope)