photo by Landon O’Brien
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s selection, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is “Postcard” by Letting Up Despite Great Faults from the 2012 album Untogether on New Worlds.
Formed by Los Angeles musician Mike Lee in 2004, Letting Up Despite Great Faults releases dreamy electronic pop that balances its bedroom lo-fi tendencies with dancefloor rhythms and shoegaze-style layering. After releasing a series of EPs across three years, Lee released his first self-titled full-length effort in 2009. Three years later, and fleshed out with keyboardist/vocalist Annah Fisette, bassist Kent Zembrana, and drummer Daniel Schmidt in a live setting, Lee has expanded the project to a widescreen scope on Untogether, not unlike the work of M83 or Wild Nothing. The album’s fourth track, “Postcard” is insistent and bright, placing a sharp array of synth lines against a thumping drum machine beat and washed-out vocals. Not unlike something off Saturdays = Youth, Lee’s vocal performance is nostalgic, melancholy, and optimistic all at once, providing the song with an organic, emotional angle that matches the intensity of the track’s mechanical, electronic elements. Unlike some of his bedroom pop contemporaries, the scope of Lee’s late night creations never limits the range of his expression, and “Postcard” may very well serve as a musical stepping stone into danceable dream pop for those who discovered “Midnight City” earlier this year.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults are currently on tour behind Untogether, and after a stop in New York for the CMJ Music Marathon, they’ll be moving onto Japan, and then finishing up the leg in Austin. Keep up with the band on their website and Facebook for any future tour info and watch the video for the band’s 2011 track “Teenage Tide” below.
