In repeated listens, it can take on a digital feel, even though it's completely organically created, like Moby meshing those Delta blues recordings with mechanical beats. Yates is of the Earth; her band play in a hovercraft behind her, a glittering and illuminating background. There are times, as with "Spice," where there's an element of Vampire Weekend-style polyrhythms, but the Reverie Machine never get too mechanical or predictable. While songs can cycle and repeat, six-minute songs fly by like wisps, and Yates refuses to let your attention wander.
"And I hope you will join me," she sings on the closing "Ran Hard," a gloss on her vocals like blown glass, "I will plan accordingly." Then a four on the floor enters, about as unobtrusively as that can possibly happen, and the thump turns this into a dance tune, with an ocean of melody in which to swim.
I'm not sure how you could have planned for that.
NOT BY BLOOD | Released by the Reverie Machine | at the Thirsty Moose, in Portsmouth, NH | Jan 30 | at Local Sprouts, in Portland | Feb 9 | at Zero Station, in Portland | Feb 22 | reveriemachine.com
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Music Features
, Norah Jones, Meghan Yates, THE NATIONAL
