The American Analog Set

American Analog Set combine a warm hum of vintage keyboards with hushed, emotionally restrained vocals, sparse guitars, and a compact rhythm section to create music that's inspired by sounds of the past, such as '70s German rock and late-'80s American Underground, while sounding futuristic in a home-cooked way. In their early days, they synced the guitars with the keys in such a way that albums like 1996's The Fun of Watching Fireworks were lumped in with the space rock movement. They later shifted to a more song-based, guitar-forward approach (on 2003's Promise of Love, for example) before splitting. They returned in 2023 with For Forever, an album that picked up where they had left off decades earlier.

The group evolved from the ashes of the Dallas-based Electric Company in 1994. After that band's demise, guitarist/vocalist Andrew Kenny, Farfisa organist Lisa Roschmann, and drummer Mark Smith reunited in Austin to cut a number of impromptu four-track recordings that ultimately led to their decision to re-form as a group. The addition of bassist Lee Gillespie followed, and the quartet renamed themselves the American Analog Set and worked out a sound inspired by the same influences as bands like Stereolab, namely German art rock of the '70s and space age pop, while also throwing in some very American influences like the enticing mystery of Galaxie 500 and the slow-burn, avant-garde tendencies of Yo La Tengo. After just their second gig, they earned a deal with the local label Emperor Jones (a subsidiary of Trance Syndicate) and issued their debut single, "Diana Slowburner II." Their first full-length effort, the low-key The Fun of Watching Fireworks, followed in 1996. The band recorded at home, utilizing cheap gear and experimenting endlessly in order to get exactly the proper mix of restraint and tempered emotion on tape.

Their second album, 1997's From Our Living Room to Yours, was recorded the same way and saw the band subtly adjusting the sound by bringing the vocals to the fore more often. That same year they contributed to the Darla label's Bliss Out series with a more ambient-than-usual EP titled Late One Sunday & the Following Morning. The group's third album, The Golden Band, was issued in 1999. It featured shorter, more immediate songs where the guitars took the lead and the keyboards were used as more as flavoring rather than the main course. Roschmann's decision to exit the lineup soon after its release left the group in limbo, but Kenny, Smith, and Gillespie soon refocused with the addition of keyboardist Tom Hoff and guitarist/vibraphonist Sean Ripple. The shift in the lineup coincided with a change in the band's sound to one that was more layered, less spare, and featured a wider range of keyboards. The first album in this vein was Know by Heart, which was released by Tiger Style in 2001. That same year, the singles collection Through the 90s came out on Emperor Jones and gathered up singles and unreleased tracks made by the original quartet. Kenny moved to New York City in 2002 to begin a PhD. program at Columbia, but AmAnSet remained solvent.

A tour with Her Space Holiday, as well as a remix EP, Updates, followed in July 2002. 2003's Promise of Love, which continued the band's gradual sonic expansion with the addition of cellos and female vocals, marked the band's second release for Tiger Style. Hoff was unable to tour in support, requiring the band to add Craig McCaffery before playing shows with Ester Drang and the Album Leaf. Two years later, the American Analog Set signed with Arts & Crafts for Set Free, the band's sixth album and one that found them settling deeper into their more mature sound. It also proved to be their last record for a long time, as the band split and Kenny worked with Ben Gibbard and Broken Social Scene before focusing his attention on his new group the Wooden Birds. They leaned more toward acoustic music and folk while still retaining the restraint and simplicity Kenny had instituted in AmAnSet. They issued two albums -- 2009's Magnolia and 2011's Two Matchsticks -- before ceasing operations. A couple of years later, Kenny, Gillespie, Smith, Hoff, and Ripple got back together and began working on new songs. It was a slow process that took a few years, but they ended up recording the seventh American Analog Set effort, For Forever, and released it on the Hometown Fantasy label in late 2023. The record hewed closely to the sound they had established in decades past, only with a couple songs sporting more forceful vocals courtesy of Kenny. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi