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Review of 'in a strange sea' MP3 from Delusions of Adequacy website:

I was planning on posting some hot, Islands-esque summery pop/rock song that, in a far corner of my mind, I thought would actually become the soundtrack to your next long drive with the windows down and the warm weather humming all about. Maybe the sun would be going down and this year's equivalent of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - miraculously discovered by my humble little self and introduced to you, oh lucky reader - would be playing through your speakers at a nice volume and you'd be thinking, "Damn, these guys sure are good, I'm glad that guy found them and spread the word and gained all that indie-journalist clout. I guess he's pretty much the man."

But then I came across Mole Harness. The whole "electro-acoustic instrumental music" tagline totally went against my quest to find a new Tapes 'n Tapes, and so I was about as prejudiced and skeptical as you could get when I started in on "In a Strange Sea." Even though what I heard wasn't summery or trendy by any conventional standards, it was stop-you-in-your-tracks beautiful and just the right amount of sad. An effects-laden keyboard brought the song's stunning melody in first before dual guitars took it from there and gracefully carried it into the hands of gentle, warm keyboard swells, which after a short while brought it back to those pretty acoustics and quietly finished the song. Needless to say, my delusions of indie-guy grandeur were smashed and I was left with a new favorite song - a real song too, not some contrived flavor of the week tune.

Mole Harness, the moniker of James Brewster, is not in this for anything but making music. Through the simple setup of guitar and sampler and not much else, he grabs you and sits you down and forces you to take a short, quiet, much-needed break from the grind. His music wordlessly speaks to anyone who listens and will leave them with goosebumps on their arms and necks.

Owen McLean

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