In a strange debut, The Microphones seem to live up to their moniker by adopting first-person viewpoints of various musical things, including amps, guitars, bass, treble, and of course microphones. They also sing of friends and simple, affectionate experiences, akin to a bunch of friends telling stories around a campfire. The sound of the record is pretty weird as, though a great chunk of it is the classic woodsy acoustic sound Phil Elverum would later perfect, the other chunk is made of sparse electronic experimentation, and even some noise experimentation as well. These experiments don't always pan out, but it's great to see them, even in their early years, trying out things with their soon-to-be-established sound. Thus, if anything, Tests shows the tendency to experiment that would come to define Phil and The Microphones as a whole.
Bump |
