Band: When Clouds Attack
Album: Young Blood
Release Date: March 17, 2012
Free mp3: “Where We Lie” (’til April 18)

I didn’t have much to share with When Clouds Attack, really, when I approached them about doing a write-up on their now near month-old Young Blood. I was, frankly, part confounded I’d reached out to a band like them.

Me: “Your sound, I’d say, differs greatly what I typically listen to and profile. I’m intrigued.”

In the time since, I’ve listened to their Young Blood often, and I’ve swung around to embrace that I am, I guess, so taken by a troupe so dependent on electronic buzzes.

My idea of “electronic,” you see, sorely hits on all the stereotypes — strobes, dim lights, whatever might happen inside, you know, the Excalibur — because I don’t feast on it, man. What’s nice, then, is how outside of it all When Clouds Attack seems. Their music is wonderfully passive.

I think that’s their biggest asset, really. They’re like the chill neighbors one flat up who kick it nightly on the outside wood deck, but don’t overdo it on the tunes. There’s a kind of care to their music; a clamor that hovers, pleasantly.

That the synths and what not get mashed with guitar and bass give listeners like me something to cling to. A sort of common ground. It isn’t that I need them, as such, but they’re tools to help furnish the space, and nevertheless made When Clouds Attack a more approachable band for me.

“Blanket Security Reprise” — below — is perhaps their best effort at working guitars and electronics in accordance. I do like “Where We Lie,” though, and you can kindly nab it back up top.

Extras:

• The Chicago-based When Clouds Attack is Todd Baran (vocoder, guitar, synths and programming), Christine Parisi (rhodes and piano) and Cameron Moore (bass). | Facebook | Twitter
• Young Blood is available for $8. Or stream free. | Bandcamp

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