Rick Rizzo & Tara Key: Guitars Speak

Updated:

February 8, 2013 3:43 pm

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Rick Rizzo & Tara Key

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Rick Rizzo and Tara Key have collaborated on their first album in about 10 years. It must have been worth the wait for the Chicago and New York-based musicians, respectively. Double Star is an intriguing album full of dreamlike instrumentals that invites close listening.

Double Star, limited to 500 copies on vinyl, ends up being a bit of a companion piece to Rizzo’s other band, Eleventh Day Dream, which will release Riot Now! in March and will open for Iron & Wine in Chicago.

On “Rizzo Starts,” a droning electric shares space with a noodling acoustic while “Insanity Stomp” is a dreamlike, Neil Young distortion fest. Standout track “Hungry” builds around a strumming acoustic guitar and backwards loop, and becomes an exploration of more ambient territory for guitars and percussion, which touches on both post-rock and pastoral psych.

Rizzo and Key (who also fronts Antietam) have created Double Star as a sort of guitarist’s guitarist statement. Even though the tracks were largely worked on long distance, there’s a warmth and shared experience on display between the players. On these instrumentals, Rizzo and Key let their guitars do the talking.