Evolving from Peter Silberman's bedroom recordings to a fully realized band, for Brooklyn-based the Antlers, what started out as a solo lo-fi folk project progressed quickly into a colossal-sounding chamber pop group. After self-recording a handful of albums in a kamikaze fashion -- Uprooted (recorded just before and after moving in 2007), The February Tape (recorded in a bathtub in an hour), In the Attic of the Universe (a single ambient song stretched into an album), and Cold War (an album with only acoustic guitar and vocals, recorded in a week) -- Silberman set forth to record his opus, Hospice, in July of 2007. Recorded over the course of almost two years, Hospice started out as another solo project before Silberman started incorporating other musicians, including drummer Michael Lerner and multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci, who eventually ended up as permanent members of the Antlers. Upon its release, Hospice received critical acclaim, with NPR and Pitchfork shouting high praises. After touring behind the album, the Antlers returned to the studio for a more electronic-minded follow-up titled Burst Apart, which was released in 2011. The album was shortly followed that same year by the Together EP and in the summer of 2012 the group issued Undersea, a four song EP with an aquatic theme as well as overall sound. It wasn't until 2014 that they returned with fourth album Familiars, recorded entirely by the band at their Brooklyn studio, then mixed by Chris Coady, known for his studio work with Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and other indie stars.
Jason Lymangrover
AllMusic.com
