Emperor Jones
2002
Earnest Powers +
About This Album
Earnest Powers is a compilation of singles and unreleased tracks by the Texas post-rock group Windsor for the Derby. It's spotty, as rarities collections tend to be, and the first third of the album is mired in post-Slint guitar arpeggios that feature plenty of repetition but not enough attention to atmosphere or production to really be engaging. After that, though, Earnest Powers is a lot more exciting: in the fifth (untitled) track, for example, the band collects some high-pitched samples that might have originally come from a recorder, then spits them back in a frazzled polyphony over an insistent drum pattern. Then, on the next track, the group layers electronics with increasing complexity over a robotic Krautrock groove. The next few songs similarly mix samples with rock instrumentation, and Windsor for the Derby is far better on these tracks than they are on the first few songs on the album. ~ Charlie Wilmoth, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5 and 6)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.