Citay’s Kingdom more than just chill, it’s paradise

Little Kingdom Citay Dead Oceans Records Rocks like: Yo La Tengo, Iron ‘ Wine

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Branding Citay’s Little Kingdom a psychedelic folk album makes it seem like the band only caters to cigarette-rolling, Vans-wearing hippies, when in reality its second effort amounts to so much more than a “chill” record, promising musical paradise to its listeners.

Hatching a sound that’s both generous and accessible, Citay is an eight-piece act hailing from San Francisco and headed by Ezra Feinberg, formerly of Piano Magic, and producer Tim Green of The F***ing Champs.

Even though the band has toured with indie giant Yo La Tengo and shared the stage with notable folk artists like Vetiver and Six Organs of Admittance, Citay has attracted very little press thus far.

The group’s second album is truly a magical “little kingdom” of sonic imagination, analogous to one of those intricate scale-model castles with tiny workable doors and stained-glass windows that peer in on miniature banquets, ballrooms and sanctuaries.

Crediting more than 70 artists as influences on its MySpace page (including Beyonce, Sonic Youth and Led Zeppelin), Citay has, unsurprisingly, given birth to a multi-textured genre of folk music that offers listeners golden layer upon golden layer of instrumentation to explore.

Guitar is Citay’s preferred instrument, but the dense acoustic and electric sounds are frequently doused in strings and often give way to trippy synthesizes and jangly tambourines.

On “First Fantasy,” Feinberg and bandmates April Hayley and Tahlia Harbour fuse feather-soft vocals that tumble above an ever-changing atmosphere of sound, dominated at times by finicky acoustic guitar and at other times by shrill, citrusy synthesizers.

The most surprising track on the album, “Former Child,” begins as an almost melancholy folk ballad but suddenly churns into an all-consuming whirlpool of synthesizer and guitar.

“Former Child” is the only track on Little Kingdom with a darker side. The remainder of the album basks in sunshine and optimism, especially “Eye on the Dollar” and “Little Kingdom,” which both shine a spotlight on Green and Feinberg’s impressive guitar work.

Little Kingdom can’t really be classified as instrumental, though it might have felt more majestic if Citay had foregone the lyrical aspect and developed the album in a purely musical domain. Verses casually drift in and out of the songs like passing clouds, perhaps intending to shade listeners from the more explosive sunbursts of instrumentation. The lyrics don’t severely detract from the album but do seem to lack invention and discipline.

Make no mistake, Citay plays its bongo drums and tambourines with a glowing pride, but beneath the haze of stoner psychedelia, there is much to be discovered inside this Little Kingdom.