![TakeMeBackToTulsa [mp3] Aqueduct // Past the Point](http://tympanogram.com/files/TakeMeBackToTulsa.gif "[mp3] Aqueduct // Past the Point")
In the mid aughts (is that the most widely accepted term for the last decade?), there seemed to be an extraordinary number of bedroom, electro-pop projects reaching into the wider consciousness. Perhaps it was the massive success of the Postal Service, or the early adoption of home computer based recording tools that led to this particular trend, but generally speaking, most of those “bands” are long gone and all we have are the blips and bloops to remember them by. It’s not that people across the world have stopped making bedroom recordings, it’s that a certain type of low-tech, heavily melodic electronic pop music isn’t finding a wide audience via the laptops of America’s youth quite the way it was in the days of 2005.
One of the most interesting artists to emerge from this artistic template was Seattle based musician David Terry, better known as the primary creative force behind Aqueduct. In 2005, Terry’s second LP on the Barsuk label, I Sold Gold demonstrated the heights of what a solo artist could achieve with a few keyboards, a little recording software and whole lot of ambition. This record established the best attributes of Aqueduct, namely: massive pop hooks, sentimental reflective lyrics, and a genuine sense of humor. By the next record, Or Give Me Death, Aqueduct had expanded to become a four piece band. The ambitions had expanded as well, while the pop sensibilities remained, record number three featured increasing complexity of instrumentation and song structure and displayed almost concept album-like thematic and compositional unity.
Terry and the rest of the band played an opening set recently at Rochester, NY live music venue, The Water Street Music Hall. At this show it was announced that “Take me Back to Tulsa” – a free tour single – was being released to preview the upcoming, yet untitled fourth LP. The A-side, a bizarre mash-up of Bob Wills and Jay-Z, brings together two of Aqueducts lesser influences – hip-hop and country – to create something well… different. A better indication of what the next record might sound like can be found on the B-side, in the song “Past the Point.”
[mp3] Aqueduct // Past The Point
The track, a tale of love gone wrong and years gone by, never strays far from Terry’s favorite lyrical subject matter. The beginning, a whiskey drenched bit of balladry and steel guitar, quickly gives way to a mid tempo electro-pop song. On ready display is the distinctive Aqueduct trademark of backing the vocal melody note for note with bright, vintage synth lines. The warm, earnest delivery of Terry’s vocals lend a likable sincerity to well worn thematic territory. While very much rooted in the strengths of Aqueduct’s past work, “Past the Point” shows the band continuing to develop beyond their bedroom roots, and makes a clear case for why Terry’s project has survived well beyond shelf life of many of his contemporaries.
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