OTHER RELEASES: Kepler Fuck, Fight, Fail CD Kepler Attic Salt LP/CD

TMU 088 KEPLER "Missionless Days" CD The Ottawa, Canada-based quartet KEPLER return with their second full-length, "Missionless Days". This release finds them taking a much more mature route, creating delicate, country-tinged compositions with masterfully minimal strokes. Their songs are beautifully understated: a single slide-guitar chord shimmers and fades, a quiet brush of a snare drum complements it, then perhaps there's a millisecond of silence before singer Jon Georkish-Watt's fragile, poignant voice begins. Sometimes two guitars intertwine for a part of a song, sometimes you might even hear a touch of strings, lap steel, or piano, but for the most part KEPLER employs a "less is more" philosophy that enables them to produce wonderfully sparse, lilting songs. You could liken their sound to slo-core bands like CODEINE and LOW, with a touch of modern stars SON VOLT, but KEPLER has a unique style that's somehow cold and serene on the outside but warm and alive on the inside.