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SECRET SONGS
(Midriff)
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They started out in Boston, then spent some time in Brooklyn; now they’re back home, and this month they’re celebrating the release of their full-length debut. Autumn Rhythm are high-school sweethearts Valerie Allen and Eli Queen, two indie-pop lovers who strip their songs to the essence, intertwining dulcet guitars and meandering melodic bass lines, languishing in a sensuous simplicity with minimal drums courtesy of Lou Miller. (He’s since been replaced by Martin Pavlinic.) Acolytes of Galaxie 500/Yo la Tengo drone rock are legion, but the Autumn Rhythm discover their own way to draw on those influences. "Best of My Worst" finds Allen harmonizing with her own pretty voice enfolded in a shimmering latticework of guitar. "1992" is a somnambulant waltz. On "Secrets," pulsing bass trills are a nudging counterpoint to a chiming music-box riff, with Allen’s breathless plaint skirting above them both. With its lily-pad-tapping rhythm and subtly sprightly arpeggio, "Afraid To Fall" calls to mind the woozy but wary feeling of the newly lovestruck ("I'm on top of the world, but I'm afraid to fall"). But "Still There," all gentle keen and insistent hypnotic phrasing, is sweet and sad. Although the burnished glow sometimes leaves her words difficult to make out, Allen’s voice, lilting like a wind-borne bird then cracking softly like a broken heart, is itself a beautiful instrument. (The Autumn Rhythm play Zeitgeist Gallery next Thursday, December 18; call 617-876-6060.)
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