Son Ambulance

“Horizons” by Son Ambulance, from Someone Else’s Déjà Vu (Saddle Creek Records):

This Omaha collective, led by a former chess prodigy, is musically all over the board. Its tunes are like those dreams in which you know you’re somewhere familiar — your grandmother’s house or your second-grade lunchroom — yet your mind has redecorated it to look like a minimart, then Graceland, then downtown Toledo. Son Ambulance sounds heavily influenced by the psychedelic ’60s and by the lush ’80s London underground. Approaching lyrics with stream-of-consciousness style, songwriter and singer Joe Knapp never tries to wake a listener up. Some of us could not be more in love with our pillows, especially when they’re made of soundscapes that evoke Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, the Fugs and Syd Barrett. The tiniest moments are here in the down preserved.