Following 2003's Kite vs Obelisk, San Francisco's Ral Partha Vogelbacher return with a third album, 'Shrill Falcons'.

Ral Partha Vogelbacher are a they, not a he: frontman and founder Chadwick Bidwell is once again joined by friends and collaborators Thee More Shallows. Tearing up the usual template, this time around Bidwell wrote the lyrics (he provides almost all the vocals on the record) and gave them to TMS' Dee Kesler who composed most of the music.

Musically more hi-fi and lyrically less oblique than both 'Kite vs Obelisk' and 2001's self-released 'The More Nice Fey Elven Gnomes Are Hiding In My Toilet Again', 'Shrill Falcons' uses a vibrant palette of musical instruments, electronic drones and fuzz guitar to create a rich, multi-hued album of very personal and very memorable songs about loss, family, friendship, feedback and sturgeon.

With dusted atmospherics reminiscent of Bill Callaghan's Smog and a dense yet dextrous lyricism akin to Dan Bejar's Destroyer, 'Shrill Falcons' is thematically a weightier album than the previous two. Where they were both largely fantasy- and/or imagination-driven (elves; knights; historic battles; tales of olde) this time inspiration is rooted in bleaker reality – the album is concerned chiefly with the death of Bidwell's father a few years ago.

All sounds were played by TMS and Chad Bidwell, besides where Anticon artist Odd Nosdam creates a dreamscape in the middle of 'New Happy Fawn'.