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coverpic flag US - Florida - Full Moon 146 - 08/16/08

Windsor For The Derby
How We Lost
Secretly Canadian

How We Lost is Windsor For The Derby's (WFTD) 7th album since their debut 12 years ago. WFTD play airy, spacy guitar driven post-rock, which could be a genre starting to sound a bit passé these days. Well, what isn't? WFTD aren't like everybody else. How We Lost isn't lost, nor is this the sound of losing.

It seems WFTD's (hailing from Tampa, Florida, now residing in Philadelphia, PA, after a "stop-over" in Austin Texas) founding members Dan Matz and Jason McNeeley (both guitars) found something new when they "relocated" to the Secretly Canadian label (this is their third for SC), because they've gone further away from the post-rock math-rock style from their first records and more into indie-rock terrain á la Yo La Tengo. Former names of reference have been Durutti Column, Slint, Red House Painters, Low, and more. Now I also come to think of Flying Nun shy-pop bands, an unplugged version of The Jesus & Mary Chain -- without sunglasses and bastard behaviour, that is. You'll also find glimpses of Joy Division as well as Beach Boys harmonies. Quite a wide range of music, making a nice whole as an album. Check out the poppy "Maladies", the more epic (poppy as well) "Hold On", the more spacy, eccentric "What We Want", or the chilled down "Good Things". Everything's done with delicate guitars.

Though I really like the Emotional Rescue LP (2004), I guess How We Lost is as good - in a different way. That's what WFTD's music is about: difference and repetition (hence the title of their 1999 album). But, as mentioned, add catchiness as an ingredient as well.

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