Introducing: Pearly Gate Music

Cherish your siblings. If you listen to this guy's songs, you can't help but thinking that he obviously likes what his older brother and his pals are doing. And honestly, who wouldn't if your older brother was Joshua Tillman, drummer of the mighty Fleet Foxes? Exactly.

Pearly Gate Music is the band or rather musical project of Zach Tillman, and almost every note he plays sounds like some mystic outtake of one of the Foxes' earlier sessions. Of course that's quite a bit of an overstatement, as there are clear-cut distinctions between the two artistic endeavours. Still, it's remarkable to see how Zach, too, uses the structures and patterns of traditional American folk music to come up with something almost transcendentally ethereal. And just like the Fleet Foxes' debut, the result are songs incredibly intriguing from the first listen that still somehow manage to grow every time you come back to the LP. So, it's not enough to state that if you like the Fleet Foxes, you'll enjoy Pearly Gate Music, too (though that's true beyond doubt), but we're in fact talking about one of this year's great debuts here.

By the way, apparently we're also witnessing quite intact family relationships, as Joshua plays drums for his brother when he's performing, and at the same time Zach supports his brother as bass player on his touring band when being on the road with his own solo project. Happy family.

Pearly Gate Music's self-titled debut album will be released by Seattle's Barsuk Records and is due May 18.

Pearly Gate Music - Big Escape