We have a lot of bands nowadays that sound like Fleet Foxes. Musicians obviously saw that the tightly packaged brand of indie folk was a winning formula, so the past two years since their debut has been crammed with albums trying to emulate this idea.

Of course, a lot of people miss the boat on such a concept, and listening to the same aforementioned formula over and over again proves to get a little tiresome. Then Pearly Gate Music enters the scene. Zach Tillman has a special quality right off the bat: he’s the brother of J. Tillman from Fleet Foxes. The sound on Pearly Gate Music’s debut is much the same as his siblings’, but Zach strays more towards the freaky side of things, taking a nod from Devendra Banhart while twisting together some strong folk pop melodies.

The first single from Pearly Gate Music is “Big Escape,” a strict tempo, lo-fi number which is very different than the rest of album. Hearing this song before everything else might set the listener up for some mild sonic confusion, but Mr. Tillman experiments with many a genres throughout his 10-song opus and proves he can keep a listener at bay. “I Woke Up” is a slow progression with the same lilting chorus, but the instrumentation which is added every 30 seconds in the song such as some seriously glorious drums turns this into a very baroque-sounding composition. Then there is “Bad Nostalgia,” the track right before closer (and aptly named “Rejoice”) which is arguably the best song on this debut. It’s a manic power jam which explodes in the last minute to be the best highlight of the 35 minutes the listener has experienced thus far. We get a strong collaborative effort on this track: piano, multiple layered guitars, crashing cymbals- nothing new from an instrumental perspective but so well done that it sounds fresh.

He also has another thing going for him: he has signed to Barsuk, arguably one of the most intelligent labels in foreseeing strong acts and accurately promoting them to explode in the music world. We saw this with Phantogram, a band which has consistently sold out venue after venue after strong internet buzz. Tack on a few others like Viva Voce, Mates of State, and Ra Ra Riot, all acts which have tightly defined their sound and taken off with it to impressive results. While I have no idea what to expect with a follow-up from Pearly Gate Music, it might not need to be anything drastically different. After all, Barsuk artists tend to solidify their sound and show they are masters of the genre they meld into. Either way, Mr. Tillman has found a formula which suits him and provides a bright take on indie folk that music listeners around the world have begun to respect with a high degree, and will likely eat up once they hear what Pearly Gate Music has created.