Simian Life
Simian Life mastermind Andy Campanella hasn't been waiting in the wings so much as he's been creating in them. As the touring/recording drummer in such Los Angeles indie luminaries as Stevenson Ranch Davidians and, more recently, fellow ATOM Records artists the black watch (among others), Andy has been quietly-steadily charting his own course as a writer and arranger of pretty trippy (and really quite pretty) songs. And it hasn't hurt him that his big brother Rob both had his own fine LA band (The Quarter After) and was a key player for forever in The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Nor has it been a bad thing for Andy that Rob has a blue chip studio in the Hollywood Hills--at which Rob's produced and engineered records for The Warlocks, Mia Doi Todd, The Tyde, and the aforementioned TBW ...
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And speaking of pretty, the songs on Simian Life's debut album may put you in mind of Roy Harper at his most experimental--or even Procol Harum at their most, well, Procol Harumish. Or a sort of amalgamation of Nick Drake, Michael Chapman, The Moody Blues, and even Beck in his prettier moments, for that matter. Or they may not remind you of anything other than Simian Life itself: there's a sort of familiar unfamiliarity here, a psychy state of mind/being that seems at once like a dream and not a dream at all.
If you know what I mean.
Andy observes that the recording process has been smooth sailing all the way; there's no sibling rivalry a la your Oasis or Kinks brothers here. It's all peace and love and good hard, enjoyable work. Andy states: "As Rob is number two of seven brothers and I’m number seven, he was quite integral in shaping my musical tastes growing up. I think we make a good team, as far as production goes. Even though we took a very 'Let's just see what we come up with in the studio' approach, we had a pretty good idea of how the songs were going to sound."
Included on the CD version of the album are two bonus tracks that come from the brothers’ first release, a vinyl single on Hypnotic Bridge Records. In fact, the album is very much a family affair as in addition to a number of friends and bandmates, tracks have backing vocals sung by brother Dominic, cousin Christina, and mom Jill. One song even features both of Andy’s daughters’ voices, and is co-written by the older, Cora, who was only four years old at the time of writing. Even the cover photo was taken by another brother, Johnny.
And what better way to showcase that familial theme than with a collection of mind-bending, blissed-out, and ultimately quite mysterious and enticing psych songs that may well transport you to that unfamiliarly familiar place we referenced earlier?
Or was it familiarly unfamiliar? Nonetheless, never mind: help yourself onto the carousels of sound that are just a taste of what Simian Life will do over the course of a musical venture that's only just beginning--and that's kinda/sorta timeless indeed, indeed, indeed.