The Antler King - Ten for a Bird (2018)

The Antler King is the brainchild of Maarten Flamand & Esther Lybeert; ever since 2011 they have been relentlessly paving their musical road with indie pop gems, seasoned with vocal harmonies and dashes of psychedelics. I will gladly recite the press release, because it nails their music perfectly: ‘Ten for a bird’ is a beautiful, mesmerizing, sing-a-long, melancholic, touching record. And it has a bite, with a dash of dissonance and a little lunacy. Listen to the spooky Link Wray-guitars ft. The Cramps instant classic ‘Orange Monkey’; there are more spheres here than moons around Jupiter, but mostly; always good songs! Songs that are always stripped to the bare essence and adorned with adventurous arrangements and rhythms, humming vocals and strange guitars. Most bands end up in a cul-de-sac upon reaching their third album, but The Antler King has just shifted gears. Their YouTube Channel only has 136 subscribers. The outrage!
(Humo 28/09/2018 - Mark Coenen)
A 5-star review in HUMO for ‘Ten for a bird’. That is what we call a top-review!
A very good start for Ten for a Bird that received nothing good reviews.
Ten for a Bird’. The Antler King’s third studio-album and the second time the band worked with Jan Chantrain, who already pushed the much appraised ‘Patterns’ to greater heights.
This third album confirms The Antler King’s song writing skills. On this album the band shows its true identity: edgy indie pop music, which turns ‘Ten for a Bird’ into the perfect Zeitgeist-soundtrack. Romance is omnipresent, yet bestowed with a psychedelic, dark twist, which gives the whole album a somewhat timeless feel.
‘Ten for a Bird’ is an album of a band that has fully reached its maturity. The Antler King have omitted the musical frills and kept the pure essence. The experiment serves the album well, and a dash of lo-fi electronica provides ‘Ten for a Bird’ with a trés-nu feel.