Chance: Worth Taking

            This is a review of the EP Chance, by Australian artist Kigo, and the 17th review of a release, here on Track-By-Track.

            Well, mixtape month has come and gone, but I'm returning to my normal review style with a bang.  Australian artist Kigo (Solo artist D.P. Pearce) has been on my radar for a while, and with every new release (which tends to be nearly monthly), the sound gets even better.  Kigo definitely has a shoegaze sound, but interestingly, with digital and sampled-sounding drums, instead of the generally live-sounding drums most modern shoegaze artists have.
            A certain kind of sheer raw power comes through each track, to a degree that is incomparable to any band I can think of.  My Bloody Valentine is definitely an influence on Pearce's writing and performing, but mix-wise, Kigo stands alone.  And this is just part of a prolific, albeit young, career: Since February, Kigo has released 4 EPs, and a single with a b-side, amazingly, comprizing 20 songs.  Get ready for raw and amazing sound.
             Here's my TBT:

            Chance starts with "Dress", which in the beginning sounds like My Bloody Valentine's "She Found Now", leading into their "Soon".  The chord structure and style are very similar to "Soon", but the vocals and lead instrumentation show the differences.  The entire track is overdriven to the extreme, and the vocals are decimated out of understandability.  Loads of glide-guitar, over a drum sample or two, with bass and plenty of reverb and delays over most of the tracks.

            Then, coming out of seemingly nowhere related, the title track changes the whole trip.  Huge tremolo-affected guitar, a fast drum sample -- used slower before in Kigo's "Eyes so Bright (See the Spark)" -- and a great screeching feedback sound in the beginning are immediately noticable.  Vocals are once again obscured, mainly by eq, and not by distortion.  It's a fast song with loads of the energy that Kigo has had from the beginng, just with a slightly more-refined sound than the earlier releases, like Guilt and Closer (Hear My Voice).  It's a bit space-rock as well, like Duster's "Echo Bravo".

            "Leave Me Behind" is the third track.  The beauty of the sound is once again driven by the power, but it's a slower, more contemplative song than would be expected with the general guitar sound.  This is something I really like about shoegaze in general; artists can play powerful and huge-sounding guitar tracks, without actually playing abrasive songs.  Emotive synths show up in this one, drums are digital, and guitar is sublime.  The bass track is also more noticeable than usual, and it really drives the track into Debbie Googe territory.  Vocals are breathy and less-obscured than the previous two tracks, but still not clear enough to my ears to make out words.  The vocals in Pearce's songs are mostly equalized out of recognition, through hi-passing the base notes almost completely out, or emphasizing the higher frequencies.

            The last track is "When You Look", which again emphasizes synth and bass, and this time, vocals are even clearer.  The overall sound of the song is really warped and introspective, and it's a bit droney (genre, not boring by any means).  It's like if Spacemen 3 turned into a prog-rock band in the late '70s, but better than what that might sound like.  The only perceptable beat in the track is a soft bass kick, which might be just the bass's strings being touched, which makes it a bit more like the previous (and uncharacteristically slower) Kigo EP Some Other Place, which I also highly recommend.  The guitar, bass, and synth combination is dream-inducing, and the whole track is a fitting end.  For anything.  It feels like the end of an avant-garde movie, in one of the rare times the ending is satisfying and full of wonder.

            Overall, this is an amazing EP, and the sound of Kigo has loads to offer to the genre of shoegazing.  The raw power and soft emotion that comes through Chance is as genre-specific as it is unique.  Kigo will be coming out with an LP soon, and Pearce has also created a black-metal solo project (Afterwalker).  You can get this album (and all previous releases) for pay-what-you-want at: http://kigo.bandcamp.com/.  This is a Chance worth taking.

Desert Love for Lonely Graves: A Shoegaze Sandstorm

            This is a review of the album Desert Love for Lonely Graves (2013) by the Italian band Weird. (period after name intentional), and the fifth review on this blog.

            This is yet another band I stumbled across during my random shoegaze searches.  Upon my first listen, I thought the instruments were all played by different people, and it came as a surprise that one person -- Marco Barzetti -- played and wrote almost everything on Desert Love for Lonely Graves.  This album makes me think of an extra-wide shot of a distant fight between two cowboys in the desert somewhere in Nevada, or in Mexico.  The soft yet overpowering reverb is something that takes a little while to get used to, but the opening track is your portal to understanding the rest of the album, if you aren’t used to alt-rock songs.
            It has a substantially dry sound: There aren’t any prevalent watery sounds like Slowdive or Ride, and the vocals are sometimes used like psych-rock drones.  This doesn’t qualify just as shoegaze, but I can’t think of a better description of its sound.  If Western-Shoegaze were a genre, this would be it -- or perhaps, considering the speed of the internet, this is it.  I found listening to the album in track-order an enjoyably immersive experience.
            Here’s my TBT:

            “Dark Was The Sky, Cold Was The Rain” opens the album with a track perfectly suited to introducing the rest of the album, filled to the brim with sounds of sand and maize.  Definitely listen to this one first, because it sets up the rest of the album perfectly.  It’s surrounded in storm-clouds of reverb, and has a thick atmosphere of an all-expansive yet concentrated energy.  Huge bass, long guitar and vocal trails, and slow yet powerful drums.  It’s like all the base-tracks are being fed a constant energy, that somehow translates without that horrid damp power-line hiss.

            “Echo & The Lullaby” follows, with psychedelic harmonies fed through a slightly spring-style reverb, and though the lyrics (or what little of them I can discern) are minimal, the real treat is the dancing vocals playing well with the instruments.  It’s downbeat, with hints of that post-rock HDR-like quality.  There are a few mastering blips in the track, but those won’t be too noticeable amidst the power feeding your ears.  The feedback at the end is to die for.

            “A New Beginning” is a Radiohead-reminiscent track, and begins the somewhat upbeat tracks in the album.  It’s the only track that was not fully written by Barzetti; Matteo D'Argenio co-writes the lyrics, though it’s almost impossible to discern any lyrics in this and all the other songs. The drums are slow and lamenting, the guitar and bass like a driving sea, and I’m always a glutton for falsetto.  The different melodic structures in the song perfectly compliment each other.  This might be my favourite track on the album.

            The 4th track, “Desert Love”, doesn’t have the same atmosphere as the rest of the album, and it’s the only track that breaks its considered mood.  It’s a little indie for my liking, and the vocals don’t have the same quality as the other songs, though there are some great violin-like sounds in this one.  It’s the quickest on the album, too.

            “The Moan” follows, with its beach-party-esque sound, which is abruptly broken (or perhaps complimented) by a metal-influenced drive.  Drums are amazing, especially the first time they really make themselves known.  Some heavily driven bass is underneath a cleaner track, and the loud parts of this song bring back memories of my metalhead phase.  The softer parts are very moody, and nighttime-ish.  Get ready for more psych-rock drones, lifts, and falls.

            “Sundive” is the second-last track, and the shoegaze influence is strongly audible.  The frequencies compliment each other very well, and it makes me think of the second half of the album’s title.  It feels a little long, but this album doesn’t really seem to be about individual tracks; it creates an overall parched-ness that quenches as it desiccates.

            “Druggirl” finishes the album at an astonishing 9:36.  It starts off with some finality-sounding driving power, which is present in a lot of the track, thankfully, and continues towards its total western-shoegaze destination.  The bass leads this one for sure.  It pretty much sums up the experience of the album, but with a tinge of a goodbye.  If the rest of the album were a movie, this would be the the walking into the sunset, and the big-letter credits.  I won’t spoil what comes after the fake-out endings.

            Overall, a great album, in quite possibly a new sub-genre.  By far, Weird. already has an iconic, shoegaze sandstorm of a sound, and you can check out http://weird1.bandcamp.com, for free streaming and downloading.  And get corn-chips and salsa.  You’re gonna want those with your sonic meal.