Local Record Review: Lost River/Old River's No Clouds

Every once in a while, an album from a local artist pops up with little or no notice, grabs our attention, and holds on tight. Although we’ve only recently been able to count the peripatetic Matthew Hovey Kemp and his Lost River/Old River project as one of Austin’s own, his new record No Clouds is surely one of those albums. No Clouds is Kemp’s second full-length album to be released in five years under the LR/OR name, and was recorded in five houses in four different states—somehow, it holds together remarkably well as a single statement. Over the course of the album’s 53 minutes, we’re treated to a dusty, cinematic take on Fleet Foxes’ folk ballads scored with beautiful and moody instrumental arrangements that the Constellation Records roster would be proud of.

While the record isn’t exactly bursting with immediately accessible hooks, the dusky melodies still lodge themselves in your head—languid electric guitars occasionally slide around Kemp’s voice as he harmonizes with himself, and well-placed horns and keyboards provide exactly enough punctuation to buoy the melodies and prevent the songs from ebbing into the background. The instrumentation is mostly acoustic though, and it supports Kemp as he spins impressionistic yarns of landscapes that intertwine with hazy stories of the people living in them. All told, No Clouds is a lovely and engaging record; in it, Kemp has created a perfect late-autumn listen that only improves the longer it’s lived with, and we enthusiastically recommend it—we’re still happily surprised to have been introduced to it in the first place.

Lost River/Old River [Official] [Bandcamp]