Reviews > CDs

Real Estate: Days

Domino

If the inter-species breeding of indie-rockers and jambands is truly becoming reality, then it’s worth asking how their offspring will sound. Without the prog, jazz, funk or roots origins of the traditional hippie lineage, indie bands have the opportunity to carve out their own improvisational rock niche. One option is provided by Real Estate, the New Jersey trio counted among the current wave of indie bands with jammy sympathies, thanks largely to the heady statements of Real Estate bassist Alex Bleeker. The group’s second LP finds them refining the recipe of their self-titled first: heat-shimmer pop around a core of gentle melodies (particularly on the superb “Out of Tune” and “It’s Real”) that separate them from their blog-psych peers. If one must invoke the ‘60s, then the chimey guitars and delicate vocals puts them more in the spirit of The Byrds, which they nod to on a track called “Younger Than Yesterday.” But with the atmospheric lead guitar of Matt Mondanile (who also records loop-heavy soundscapes as Ducktails), an extended track like the 7-minute closer “All the Same” isn’t a throwback solo-fest. The heavy eyelid haze is a more modern brand of psychedelia that finds cosmic enlightenment in the fractal sprawl of the suburbs.