Yonokiero - Blue Apples

Lo-fi needn't be the dirty word people would have you believe; the gritty folk and warm bedroom atmosphere offered on Yonokiero's LP is as rich and percussive as any polished studio effort, and Chris Baldwin and Tom Coogan's wistful harmonies, exemplified to textured effect on the overdriven Joey Santiago-esque guitar of 'Rare Bit', are a case in point on an album where the subtleties far outweigh the obvious highlights.

'Blue Apples' has Messrs Baldwin and Coogan, for the most part, ditch the sparse post-rock of previous incarnations ('Rewound', for one, has them regress into the sparse feedback of their Hirameka Hi-Fi days); it is at its most complete in the mellow, understated moments when the band unplug and rely solely on the battered acoustics they so clearly know their way around.
The title track's melancholic patter and the dreamy closing pair of 'Cuddly Dominion' and 'The Test Dream' are like a stripped back Mario's Cafe-period Saint Etienne or a slightly less glum Red House Painters, and are doubtless some of the most well-crafted of what proves to be a pretty definitive journey.

MP3: Invitation to Malmo
MP3: The Test Dream

Out now.

www.myspace.com/yonoquiero