Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: Extended play

December 7, 2013

Globelamp – Star Dust (EP Review)

As the end of the year approaches, it can be easy for late releases (especially smaller ones) to get lost in the shuffle of best-of coverage. Year after year, writers draw up articles including phrases like “which surely would have made best-of list last year, had i caught it in time”. It’s a misfortune that claims several victims, some of which are the most inexplicably fascinating releases of the year. Globelamp’s Star Dust will likely fall into this category. Recorded onto an 8 track cassette recorder, it’s woozy psychedelic-tinged folk that has improbable pull.

Star Dust comes courtesy of the recording and producing duo that makes up Globelamp; Sam France and Elizabeth le Fey. Together the two operate in the realms that fringe on, and occasionally intrude, freak-folk. There’s a mirage of genres and influences that permeate through Star Dust, lending it a sense of deep intrigue that welcomes repeat visits. “Breathing Ritual” gets the EP off to a start as strong as anyone could hope for, acting as a song that both accurately represents the band and sets the tone for what’s to come.

While the trio of tracks that follow “Breathing Ritual” don’t hit the same heights, that’s no fault of their own. All three are strong in their own right and have a few moments approaching twisted brilliance- Globelamp do wonders with their tangential elements. Each track on Star Dust comes loaded with atmosphere, ensuring that close attention is paid to it throughout. None of the songs go over five minutes and all three following EP standout “Breathing Ritual” are acoustic-driven.

“Time Warp”, the most plaintive track on Star Dust, slows the EP’s momentum but has enough surprises dialed into it to keep listeners rapt. It’s also one of the tracks that places a greater emphasis on the vocals, which plays into one of the band’s strengths; le Fey’s charismatic personality and entrancing voice. “Constant is the Calling” closes out Star Dust in quiet fashion, offering glimpses at what makes this release so curious- and so appealing. When all’s said and done, what’s left is one of the year’s most unexpected and strangely beautiful releases.

Star Dust is available as a name-your-price release at bandcamp and is available for streaming below.

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November 19, 2013

Great Thunder – Groovy Kinda Love (Album Review)

First off: apologies for the font issues yesterday’s Meredith Graves interview piece is still experiencing, those will hopefully be resolved at some point in the near future. Now, today’s event: Great Thunder.  Great Thunder have been one of the more hidden side projects for a while now, despite two incredible releases and the continuously rising profiles of both Swearin’ and Waxahatchee. Both their Strange Kicks EP and Sounds of Great Thunder LP showed flashes of their band members’ other projects influence. While this is still true of the absolutely massive Groovy Kinda Love, it’s to a much lesser extent.

Groovy Kind of Love utilizes an intimidating run time that nears 90 minutes to maximum effect. Great Thunder sheds all genre restrictions and just lets loose, exploring industrial, ambient, sludge, folk, drone, shoegaze, pop, and punk over the record’s 30 tracks. With that much material present, it could have been easy for Groovy Kinda Love to fall into a myriad of understandable traps. Instead, Great Thunder manage to subvert the litany of dangers that accompany this brand of over-stuffing through their wide-eyed earnestness. Each track avoids being relegated to filler status by utilizing a wildly different approach. One of the best examples of this comes around the two-thirds mark with an incredible five song run that’s book-ended by Katie Crutchfield’s signature stamp of defiant resignation in both “Sorta Prima Donna” and “Chapel of Pines”.

Unsurprisingly, the record’s most deliriously ragged moments seem to come from Keith Spencer, a key (if notoriously quiet) member of Swearin’. All of the stranger moments on that band’s most recent release, Surfing Strange, are wildly exceeded by the strangeness that runs rampant through the course of this one. Spencer gets to go into full on exploration mode and makes the most of everything he pulls into the band’s shape-shifting aesthetic. Jeff Bolt and Kyle Gilbride both step in to lend their talents to various parts of the record, essentially swapping one Crutchfield out for another momentarily. The results are just as thrilling as anything Swearin’ has accomplished so far.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a project worthy of either Swearin’ or Waxahatchee’s respective talents without a few moments of utter devastation. “Singer’s No Star” takes that hushed mentality to a place that cuts even deeper than the most emotionally unsettling moments of American Weekend. Crutchfield’s voice bleeds into a delicately handled piano line and resides in secret above a hauntingly effective doo-wop chorus. It’s a moment that can freeze even the most hardened listener. “You Left Me With an Ocean” utilizes a similar approach and achieves a similar effect, allowing a short run time to set up a quiet acoustic close.

While calling Groovy Kinda Love Great Thunder’s magnum opus may seem premature, it’s certainly not unwarranted or undeserved. It’s genuinely astonishing that this record actually achieves what it does. It’s not often a band makes a statement as bold, daring, or audacious as this record is. Unquestionably one of 2013’s most notable releases, it deserves to be in just about any serious record collector’s home. More importantly, it deserves to sit on the turntable, played into oblivion until the grooves have worn thin. This isn’t just a record. It’s a masterpiece.

Salinas is now taking pre-orders and the record can be streamed in full below.

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