"Sons of Boy" is an 8-track mini-opus of face-melting moments alongside crystalline spasms of beauty. A somewhat genre-less album, "Sons of Boy" rides an undefined line somewhere between instrumental post-rock, punk, ambient, prog and grind. While some tracks offer seriously intense guitar and heavy-handed noise elements (Torticline, Neon Seals), this album is more soulful and playful than the band's 2006 release "Head! Foot! And The Pink Axe". But for some context, it also bears mentioning the long odds Aaron Tanner and Brett Siler faced during the arduous task of producing this broad-ranging album.
It took a full year of recording, and much like the production of movies such as Poltergeist and Apocalypse Now, "Sons of Boy" was beset with tragi-comic episodes: computer failures, battles with utility companies, medical emergencies, stints in jail, blown fuses and tubes, an epic flood, robberies and assaults, locust invasions and other setbacks that would have seen other bands saying, "To hell with this..." However, two ever-so-slight upsides Stationary Odyssey saw during the recording process included the Christening of Siler's new studio and Brett discovering that he did not have the AIDS virus. For each of the all-too-true calamities that occurred during the production of Sons of Boy, Tanner and Siler - accompanied by a roster of friends and contributors - counter with yet another guided journey to the heart of strange beauty the Indiana boys have been conducting for nearly a decade.
Conjuring the spirit of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Steve Reich, Stationary Odyssey display a maturity and measure of growth that has resulted in a truly diverse and honest recording.
