Ocean Beach

San Francisco is a creative crossroads for everything from hardcore punk to acid jazz, but perhaps no music so deftly charts the Northern California coastal landscape as the expressionistic folk made by songwriter Mark Kozelek and his Bay-area band, Red House Painters. While consistently slow and acoustic-based, the music squeezes an entire spectrum of colors out of its micro-style. On the instrumental opener "Cabezon," the hue is blissfully sunny and swaying to the shuffle of brushes and picked nylon-strings. On "Red Carpet," the addition of bottom-heavy bass and a guitar noise backdrop casts an ominous pall over the same basic formula. Meanwhile, the more upbeat and hook-driven shade of "San Geromino" makes for thoroughly majestic rock. Sometimes melancholic, sometimes dramatic, Ocean Beach sounds musically united. If for no other reason, though, Red House Painters is worth celebrating because its roots lie in the much-appreciated but rarely drawn-upon beauty of Simon and Garfunkel. Hearing the bouncing bass-lines, plucked guitar intervals, and peaking harmonies of "Over My Head," you just can't help feelin' groovy, and with the unrelenting stillness of "Summer Dress" and "Drop," we bask in the sounds of silence. --Roni Sarig