The Lost Tribes: A Guide to Austin Music [Album Review]
Pau Wau The Lost Tribes: A Guide to Austin Music [Self Released]
Investing a little time to check out this compilation should be a no-brainer. You can download it for free (link below) and it’s full of local Austin talent. These fifteen tracks, half of which were previously unreleased, were curated by Nick Cornetti of the Pau Wau collective and paired with a limited edition zine distributed during SXSW to help get the artists recognized.
The compilation includes tracks by Agent Ribbons, American Sharks, Dikes of Holland, The Weird Weeds, Cartright, Dana Falconberry, Sunset, Field Dress, Chris Catalena & The Native Americans, Sleep Good, Lean Hounds, Missions, Traffique, My Milky Way Arms and Zorch. The music tucked between the pages passes you around the room from soft acoustic touches to far out reaches in eerie, atmospheric soundscapes to frantically tangled rock and roll. The album flows along with no abrupt stops, but you can feel a shift from the first half, which relies more on strings and strums building a rootsy vibe, to the second half saturated in electronics. The shift is unavoidable in the end as Zorch showers you with plinkering pixels raining overhead in blues and greens. Cartright’s steely grit makes “Mother’s Grit” a stand-out track, joining Agent Ribbons’ precious '60s pop tune “I’m Alright” and a bizarre yet impeccably harmonious “Livin The Dream” by Traffique.
Pau Wau is putting on a series of four shows - two of which have already occurred - to raise money for the project with artists from the compilation. Keep your eyes peeled for the next chance to catch some of these local acts and support creativity brewed in your back yard.
The Lost Tribes: A Guide to Austin Music [download]
