John Morton has long worked in the Chicago music scene. Post Radio is his solo recording project. Counterfeits, his debut, is a true solo effort: he is the lone writer and performer on this eleven-song set.
He describes the album as “indie rock, indie electronic, and ambient noises”, which is a fair place to start. On Counterfeits you’ll find lots of drum loops and layered keyboards, with appropriate guitar work, building a full, almost mystical sound. Within the album, Morton achieves some particularly creative synth tones. Many sounds were familiar yet unique: for instance, you’d think he was playing a piano (e.g. on “Dreamers”), but it was something just different and yet still very pleasing to the ear. Counterfeits starts us with the instrumental “B. I. Madison”, a slow, keyboard-and-noise overture to ease us into the proceedings. Then whammo, right into the danceable big beat of “Spies on the Hillside”, with its trance-y vocals and chunka-chunka guitar. The string parts add to the tension throughout as they move higher and lower in the mix. The melancholy lyrics introduce Morton’s themes for the record: loss of youth, paranoia, futility, and doubt. These are well-described, and his choice of words communicates easily, without being overbearing or over-literal. Unfortunately, this track also introduces some issues with the mix, or the mastering. The big beat--the bass drum, in particular--is so big that it distorts my speakers. The distortion reappears on “Buzzing Creatures” and “There, After”, so it may be purposeful; purposeful or not, I found it distracting, and had to pause these tracks to clear my head (and my find my sumatriptan). Other tracks (the excellent “Stereos and Holograms”) have the big beat, and the mix is great, so there’s either a technical glitch or a conscious choice that I didn’t understand. Back to the music. “Stereos and Holograms”, as mentioned, is one of the top tracks on Counterfeits. It’s a minor-key dance tune, with layers of synths and lovely melodic counterpoints throughout. Think Saint Motel, but darker. “Into the Tide” is a winner, too. It feels like waking up in a Scottish field, with the sun washing over me. Morton elicits bagpipe-type tones out of his keyboards as he builds the track into an upbeat rocker with mystical, chant-like vocals. On the outro, he intones “I wanted to believe the tide was always on my side”. Me too. Well put. My other top track is the wistful, dirge-like “So Long” combines acoustic guitar and atmospheric keyboards with a modern drum loop. The musical theme returns with sound variations, and the lyric offers a nice twist too. Morton says, “if I’m counterfeit / then please let me fake my way through this”. There’s no faking on this LP--he’s created beautiful music that channels and expresses tough feelings. While I’d love to hear a remix, I wouldn’t change a note otherwise.
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