I could do the reviewerly thing and give you a thousand words of
dribble trying to explain my distaste for terms like “art rock” or
“minimalist pop,” but in the case of Austin’s Yellow Fever, the tags
are justifiable, and the group’s self-titled debut full length is a
perfect example of both. I’m hardly surprised, as Yellow Fever’s first
two EP’s (where much of the material on this album is culled from)
answered the question of “what if Stereolab had been more interested in
sounding like Young Marble Giants or LiLiPut instead of Kraut Rock or
French pop?”
Not that Yellow Fever deal in alternate histories, or are attempting to
fill some weird esoteric niche; rather, this sound is all their own,
and with these eleven songs, the band gives us the blueprints for a
base to be built upon, a foundation for even more wonderful things.
