AMG Review of Under a Different Sky

Kathleen C. Fennessy
All Music Guide

Via Tania is singer/songwriter Tania May-Bowers, a Chicago-based chanteuse by way of Australia. Her intimate, slightly breathy vocals come on like a cross between Billie Holiday and Lisa Germano with a little Rosie Cuckston (Pram) on the side. On her full-length debut, she is backed by an all-star coalition of mostly-local players: Doug McCombs (Eleventh Dream Day), Noel Kupersmith (Brokeback), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Chris Brokaw (Come), Scott Herren (Prefuse-73), John Herndon (Tortoise), and husband Casey Rice (who mixed and recorded the album). Under a Different Sky is dreamy, late night listening with dub, jazz, and ambient influences woven into its electronic web. Each song drifts by on delicately pulsing waves of sound, somewhat akin to the New Age Steppers and McCombs and Kupersmith's Looks at the Bird (their third recording as Brokeback), at least on those tracks on which Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen contributed their typically understated vocals.