Reverb & Seduction (Burg)

Over the last 20 years, Portland, Oregon's Federale has carved out a unique niche within the indie music landscape, blending their signature spaghetti-Western instrumental sound with increasing doses of moody vocal arrangements in the spirit of Lee Hazlewood or later-period Leonard Cohen. Still, through it all songwriter (and lead singer, when there is one) Collin Hegna has maintained a strictly retro vibe, and Federale's records have always sounded period-correct for an alternate-universe 1971 where rock and roll never caught on. Reverb & Seduction, Federale's sixth studio album, marks the band's 20th anniversary, and finds them beginning to color outside those Ennio Morricone lines. Perhaps Hegna-who also spent the last 20 years as a dues-paying member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre-has finally decided to give his psych-rock alter ego a seat at the Federale table."Before, I'd have an idea and think, 'Well, that can't be a Federale song', because it had distorted guitars or whatever," says Hegna. "But then I thought, 'Well, why not?'" This openness to a broader palette of influences allows Reverb and Seduction to veer into psychedelic and even gothic territory-think Love and Rockets or Sisters of Mercy-that the 2010s Federale might have considered off limits. The album's first single "Heaven Forgive Me," for example, draws on Goblin (the Italian prog-rockers who scored Suspiria) and perhaps even a little Depeche Mode, while "Advice from a Stranger" borrows the fuzz and feedback of DIG!-era BJM and The Electric Prunes.