The American Dollar are a post-rock duo from Queens in New York. I have no idea where I came across them but seeing as this album came out in the mid ‘00s, I’m guessing it was off The SIlent Ballet or After the Post Rock. They seem the most likely culprits.
The American Dollar play an electronic version of post rock, and a friend described them as Sigur Ros without the noisy bits. Which is pretty close to be honest.
This album is beautiful.
The delicate interplay between the keys and guitar carve a space to let you just relax into the music. It always sounds bright and warm and clear. It’s languid in the best way, like a lazy summer day, where the sun is going down and you’re exhausted yet happy and you feel that this is how life should be.
Wow, that got hyperbolic.
This isn’t gossamer ambient music though that description may lead you to think so. There are drums right up the mix, driving, almost break beats, pushing this along. The opening tracks, The Slow Wait pt1&2 pull you into this world slowly lulling you in with its gentle piano before those drums I was talking about come pulsing in. It takes my breath away every time.
Bump is a full on post rock masterpiece that just soars but not with the usual layers of distortion, TMD just have their mix so all the instruments just build on each other and it lets the music fly.
And that’s how this album works, gliding between the dazzling peaks and the chilled troughs, all while keeping me in my happy place.
And in a perfect segue, this brings me to the album highlight.
Anything you Synthesize was my go to song when I went traveling for 16 months a very long time ago. From chilling out in Vietnam, to climbing glaciers in New Zealand, to staring out a bus window in Columbia, it was a musical comforter that helped me deal with all the strangeness and loneliness that can come with long term travel. It still can act as a comfort blanket to this day, those opening piano notes still carry me away to beautiful places where I can feel the sun on my face and not have a care in the world.
Just listen to this.
Great times and a beautiful album remember them by.
https://songwhip.com/the-american-dollar/a-memory-stream
The ways of exile 