Acoustic Shack's newest release, A Distant Bell is a work of art. It took five years for them to do it, but it was well worth it.
Acoustic Shack's music is light modern rock, but it's not top 40 material. The songs have a lot of gothic overtones with many written in mesmerizing minor keys. The keyboard and guitar work of Michael Misiuk is excellent, creating a solid flowing background for the beautiful voice of his wife Laura Misiuk. The instrumentation and vocals combine to create rich textures that are hypnotic. The songs soothe and relax while preaching the loving message of our God. The final product has elements of Sixpence None the Richer, Symbiotica, and Siouxsie and the Banshees with the vocals calling to mind the latter. While the music is not truly gothic compared with an act like Concrete Blonde; there are quite a few similarities to the lyrics and style of that genre.
The production quality of A Distant Bell is well above expectations for an independent label too. The sound is crisp without being over produced. The real magic here is that even with all of the keyboard and synth work, it still isn't too busy. All in all, this is excellent. The only problem is that it is over too soon.
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Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by Josh SpencerThanks to fan mail over their five-year absence, Acoustic Shack is back. And much, much better. It's the same husband and wife duo at work, so the songwriting and vocals will be quite familiar to past fans, but this time around they've deepened and layered their sound considerably. This is due to a great production and the use of keyboards for extra sounds and textures in the mix (a few…Similar sounding releases
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