Not often will you encounter a song in which a full-throttle Steve Howe-like guitar solo full-stops to make way for a congenial bit of ska (“Simple Gift of Man”), one of many pleasant surprises on this Barcalounger electro thesis. Brothers Past mostly butter their trance-tronic bread with fluttery Tortoise-like jazz tailored for gigs backing up Weather Channel forecasts, but there are occasional showers of arena-prog, a textbook emo crescendo at sign-in track “Leave the Light On,” and one or three college-radio rope-ins (“Too Late to Call” would have been a Smashing Pumpkins brat-a-thon had it not been cowed by a Goo Goo Dolls sweet spot). A tasteful Verve feel abounds, layered with just enough R2D2-bleep-bloops and scratchy noise filler to keep up with the Joneses. Order at towerrecords.com
