Pitchfork

For over a decade, Nicolas Vernhes has brought a seemingly infinite amount of indie bands to his Rare Book Room studio. So it makes sense that Vernhes chose to inaugurate his new label with a compilation of groups recorded in his Brooklyn lair. The surprise with Living Bridge is how cohesive and consistent it is. Whether it's Vernhes' production, the groups' stylistic overlaps, or simply the high quality of the music, something makes this 25-track, 2xCD collection sound more like an album than any compilation should rightly be expected to.

Vernhes creates Living Bridge's flow by mixing the songs roughly like a DJ (as he told Pitchfork in January, he "made sure to record extended intros and outros so the songs merge together into one long, but indexed, piece of music"). But that approach would be just a gimmick were the songs not so congruous, so alike in tone and mood. It might be hard to imagine Black Dice and Tara Jane O'Neil sounding similar, and no one will mistake the former's throbbing bleeps for the latter's soft musings. But both of their contributions possess a subtlety and restraint that runs throughout the majority of Living Bridge.

That common feel is strongest on disc one, which progresses almost seamlessly. The loping hum of Telepathe's "I Cant' Stand It" climbs to a shoegaze pitch, which melts nicely into Palms' minimal trance "Der Koening". Later, Blood on the Wall adorn a simple bass line with the haunting chill of EVOL-era Sonic Youth, a vibe that perks up in Silver Jews' aching melodies, then rises into Charles Gansa's piano-driven croon. The peak of all this building intoxication is Samara Lubelski's "Ego Blossoms". Diverging from the version found on her recent Parallel Suns album, it forgoes percussion for layers of mesmerizing keyboards.

Disc two continues that aura, opening with the a cappella freeze of Theo Angell, the clipped hooks of Rings, and the airy pop of Deerhunter. But the remainder doesn't catch quite the atmosphere of disc one. The moods are less consistent, and Vernhes' transitions aren't as effective. But the music is still pretty good, from Enon's pulsing new wave to John Wolfington's majestic melody to Sam Jayne's Malkmus-like sway. Only after Jayne's cut does Living Bridge falter, finishing with generic punk, synth-pop, and painfully-bad soft-rock that would embarrass even Journey, by someone called the Jewish.

Still, on the whole, Living Bridge is so strong that it's tempting to draw overreaching conclusions-- that this represents the most interesting indie rock around, or that it proves that sonically less is more, or that it's a model for compilations that hope to be more than just a highlight reel. But like any good album, Living Bridge is valuable primarily as an aesthetic experience, its music a stronger statement than any thesis one might try to impose on it.