Heavy Rotation: Choir of Young Believers

This Danish chamber-rock ensemble is the brainchild of Jannis Noya Makrigiannis. He possesses a voice not unlike Jim James - a plains-sweeping falsetto laden in cavernous echo (although, I don't think COYB records in a barn silo too). As you probably guessed from the word "choir" being in the band's name, COYB's music does contain many voices, but Jannis is always at the eye of the storm - somehow sounding utterly alone despite the 8 person band brewing around him. I must clarify that if COYB evokes My Morning Jacket in any way (outside of the vocals), it's the melancholic, reverb-soaked MMJ of At Dawn. The other band that I can't help mentioning in regards to COYB is The Besnard Lakes. Both the Besnard Lakes and COYB have an endearing propensity for projecting Roy Orbison tragedies through a space-rock filter. "Action/Reaction," the lead single from the band's debut, could be described as symphonic trip-hop - like a fusion of the tundra-trotting beat 'n' strings of Björk's "Jóga" and the polyphonic majesty of The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations."

This Is For The White In Your Eyes is out 8/18 on Ghostly International

Download MP3: "Action/Reaction"