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Chris Brokaw
Red Cities (Atavistic)
Chris Brokaw’s solo debut strikes a middle ground between Pullman, his instrumental quintet with members of Tortoise, and Come, the rock band he once shared with singer Thalia Zedek. It is vocal-free, with Brokaw ably handling both drums and guitars. But where Pullman favors a back-porch ambience and Come mined a particularly black-hearted variant of the blues, “Red Cities” has a western tinge that evokes desert vistas and open highways. The best tracks’ stirring melodies stand quite well on their own, but the tight, riff-oriented structures of others beg for a singer.
