When recording in lo-fi with minimal instrumentation and hefty sentimental baggage, a band is bound to sound honest. Banking on the “less is more” truism, we have Green Pitch, a Danish group that plays earnest, barebones indie lullabies.
Singer Rex Garfield wrote the bulk of Ace of Hearts (Funzalo Records) with guitarist and beau Ste Rasch. Garfield’s lyrics are plaintive and her breathy delivery is like that of a quiet friend finding the courage to speak up.
The best moments of Ace of Hearts occur when Garfield and Rasch sing together, emulating the equity of a relationship with unfussy male/female vocals. In “Midnight,” Garfield waxes poetic about the minutia of long-term love when she sings, “I think it’s safe to say / I’ll watch his chest hair turnin’ gray.”
And Green Pitch prove they can do more than voice-and-guitar humdrum when they use pedal steel and melodica as foils to express both lightheartedness and the blues in “Going South.” At best, Green Pitch recalls the Secret Stars – minus their experimental streak – or Low at their daintiest.
Music this simple demands patience. Their song “Liverpool” is so slow that by the time a whole phrase is pronounced, you’re likely to forget what the start of the sentence was. Sweet and sad but a little boring, their songs endear themselves into your company and mostly manage to straddle the border between the right ‘n’ wrong side of sappy.
– Kristin Grayewski
Green Pitch (Funzalo Records)