Listening to ear’s sophomore album, it’s almost impossible not to think of Dntel, whose debut “Life Is Full of Possibilities” just celebrated its 25th anniversary. But while James Scott Tamborello’s project sounded as pretty as it was clinical, ear conveys a far more homegrown, washed-out, and childlike feeling, as if Jonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan were freely playing with sound to experiment because they have all the daytime hours to devote to it and worries of any kind zero.
The New York duo, confirmed for Primavera Sound 2027, first came to attention with the album “The Most Dear and the Future,” which already laid out a proposition Pitchfork labeled as “laptop twee.” Indeed, it sounds very much like the electronic twee that groups such as múm, Lali Puna, or The Postal Service were playing two decades ago, only now, in addition to computers and conventional instruments like guitar and piano, they also reach for their iPhones.
In fact, part of the charm of ‘Rumspringa’ lies in how it was recorded. Jonah and Yaelle sometimes worked with barely a computer and a tape recorder, without microphones, using voice notes on their phones to capture guitars and found sounds on YouTube to build the songs. The album brings together voices, accidental recordings, samples, small noises, and synthesizers that end up forming a living sonic organism. Listening to the record feels like a trip back to 2005–2006, a time when such a thing couldn’t really have existed.
Even more striking is that ‘Rumspringa’ manages to be as experimental as it is addictive. Playful might be the word, though it’s a cliché, but the album transmits a sense of childlike happiness and creative freedom, as if returning music to a time when smartphones didn’t even exist. The seemingly rustic sonic collage sits beside shy and beautiful vocal harmonies while the compositions bubble with creativity. Despite its presumably improvised look, nowhere in these 30 minutes of music do you feel bored, and each sound seems carefully placed.
One could talk about the electronic worm that threatens to swallow the opening track ‘Coil’ and the closing ‘Good Day Will Arrive,’ both highly representative of the album’s carefree mood. But perhaps no description captures ear’s music better than a comment left on YouTube’s Ne Plus Ultra: “I feel like I can chew this music.”
‘Rumspringa’ indeed offers a banquet of textures in the bucolic ‘Amsterdam,’ as luminous as it is restless. And while this isn’t a pop record made for the masses, it does assemble several moments that invite repeated listening, such as the digital tangle of ‘F,’ which later adds metallic percussion and samples of screams, or the lovely glitch of ‘Threads,’ in which none other than Apple has already noticed, using the track during the unveiling of its new iPhone. Naturally.
The lyrics wander between perplexity, difficulties in communication, and small everyday crises, contrasting with music that oozes curiosity about a “life full of possibilities.” The title alludes to rumspringa, the period of exploration granted to young Amish before they decide whether to remain in their community or abandon their customs.
The signing to A24 Music, the label behind artists like Sophia Stel and Mark William Lewis, seems tailor-made for a group that dives into apparently infinite experimentation. ‘Rumspringa’ rekindles the spirit of domestic electronic pop but with today’s language. The album feels meticulously crafted and, at the same time, preserves the wonderful sensation of making it up as you go.
