Despondent Transponder: Not Just a Fleeting Joy

            This is a retrospective review of the Fleeting Joys album Despondent Transponder (2006), and the 12th review on this blog.

            Fleeting Joys is a Shoegaze band from California, in a mainly traditional sense.  There are moments when they are more 90s alt-metal/alt-rock than shoegaze, but overall, this is one of those albums I’d recommend to anyone who wants to know what shoegaze sounds like, and who might not have had as much time bleeding their ears on the progenitors like I have (figuratively).  They have a great sound, with mainly drifting guitars, driving bass, riding drums, and vocals with a dreamy quality resurrected from the shoegaze-explosion of the 90s.
            I actually came across their formerly-lost song, Golden Now, first, and after listening to it a couple dozen times on headphones, I wanted more.  Fortunately, Despondent Transponder didn’t disappoint.  This is a strong album, and I’m glad I can write about it, even though they’ve since released newer material, because it’s so richly textured, and raw.  After all this time, it’s still relevant and enjoyable, as loads of the album just sticks with you.
            Here’s my TBT:

            The album starts with the song “The Breakup”.  It’s a modern-style shoegaze purist track, with loads of reverse-reverb and transparent overdrive.  A great start, it’s a chilled-out track, and they make use of the Kevin Shields glide guitar style of playing well.  This is another epitome of shoegazing music, like last week’s, but in a different way.  Fleeting Joys have a certain laid-back harshness about their sound on Despondent Transponder that makes their sound generally somewhere between indie rock, metal, and shoegaze proper.  Vocals are beautiful, layered, and calmly foreboding; drums ride in the verses, and are hard-hitting in the choruses; bass blasts out overdriven tones; and there’s even a great coda with samples and a perfect example of shoegazing in its element.

            “Lovely Crawl” comes next, and it’s a kind of hard-rock shoegaze mix.  Enveloping guitar and great soft breathy vocals are nicely juxtaposed by heavy bass, and slow-driving drums.  There are loads of layers in the track, many of them vocal, but some guitar, like the solos that shout out alt-rock done right.

            “Go and Come Back” is the third track.  It’s slower and softer than most of the album.  The guitar drifts in and out of its own reverb, and the vocals are beautiful.  The drums throughout are textured and played in a way to perfectly support and shine at the same time, as the bass grounds.  “Go and Come Back” is like lifting from the ground, but knowing you’ll never get lost in the sky.

            “I Want More Life” starts out with some string-samples being pitch warped, and then erupts into a kind of upbeat shoegaze speed-metal, in which the drums speed the track up, and the guitar give the illusion that the drums aren’t going fast at all.  Of course, it can certainly get the heart going, but it calms as it rages on.  It’s like an upper and a downer, not that I’d advise either of those non-musically.  It’s amazing that instrumental tracks can get this good.

            “Satellite” is fast and washed out with great guitar and high vocals.  The bass gives a backdrop to the track, and actually helps keep the key for the vocals, because great drums and warped guitar only help to imbue the track with a chaotic ordered-ness.  There’s an instrumental bridge after the middle of the track that’s to die for.  Look for it, and repeat ad infinitum.

            “While I’m Waiting”, the sixth track, comes after a low-end distorted fade-in.  The keyboard is like a good pop-line from the 90s, in the midst of a great 90s revival song.  It sounds optimistic, even though the lyrics are a bit Slowdivey.  Layered vocal harmonies fade out with the sweet anachronistic bass-line at the end.

            “Magnificent Oblivion” warps and flourishes, and a kind of repeating tremolo that sounds like a cd skipping on a synth track gives it a nice catchiness inside of the atmosphere created by warm bass, soft drums (with classic shoegaze-style cymbal rides), shy and dreamy vocals, and cold-and-aching-sounding guitar.  It’s a longer track, and addictive to boot.

            “Where Do I End” is the eighth track, and it sounds more 90s metal than shoegaze, even though it’s definitely a crossover.  I love the vocals and tonal combinations of the guitar and bass.  Actually, I love the ultra-90s-alt-rock drums too.  Actually, I adore this whole album, so if I don’t mention something, it’s not for lack of enjoyment.  Loads of fuzz and some great fake-out endings and hiss near the end.

            “Young Girls Fangs” comes next.  It begins with static, and what sounds like a guitar (or five) being fed through a Leslie speaker (or an emulator of one).  It’s another instrumental, and synths and guitar sound like the only parts to this track, even though bass is prevalent.  It’s just that the bass is so melded perfectly with the guitar’s chords and rhythm (and rejection thereof), that it doesn’t sound like anything could be that on-time outside of being built-in.

            “Patron Saint” is a hard-rock shoegaze mix.  The bass and drums are more modern rock (well-performed modern-rock, that is), and the vocals are more chilled out.  The guitar is almost impossible to describe without talking about pedals, looping, and sounds that defy description.  So instead of trying to analyze it to death, I’ll just say that it creates a kind of wildly out-of-control atmosphere, that somehow the bass manages to persuade back into non-noise-rock territory.  It’s an odd song to end on in some ways (it was the original ending of Despondent Transponder, before Golden Now was rediscovered by the band), but it does sound like an ending nonetheless.  And a bit like a Sonic Youth solo.

            “Golden Now” is the last track on the digital version of Despondent Transponder.  It’s a Heavenly sound with loads of slowly modulated guitar, bass supporting all the tones, drums that grab the attention with analogue-sounding distortion, and a killer vocal-lyrical combination.  It’s the reason I found this album, really.  As complex as it is laid-back, and dark as it is uplifting, it’s a paradox set to music.  Just listening to the drums brings by my adoration of tube mics, and the whole thing is done to a T.

            Overall, an amazing and interesting display of power and grace, usually simultaneously.  Fleeting Joys has since released a new album, and you can stream both for free at http://fleetingjoys1.bandcamp.com, and purchase CD-quality downloads at that link as well.  Like many bands, they can’t live up to their name.  The joy that is Fleeting Joys actually lasts a long time.

The Millia Pink And Green: Perfect Shoegaze Harmony

 

            This is a retrospective review of the EP The Millia Pink and Green (2003) by Sway, and the eleventh review here on Track-By-Track.

            This EP is succulent.  Though ten years old, like fine wine, it only gets better with age.  It’s a perfect portrait of the shoegaze genre, and of music itself in my opinion.  There’s a beautifully overwhelming quality to it that is in part due to the compression throughout, which instead of stonewalling, enhances the artistry of the track.  Through this compression a kind of pleasantly burning sound is achieved, for lack of a better description.
            But there isn’t fire alone with this masterpiece by Sway.  Simultaneously, there’s a watery modulated sound to the guitars in most cases.  The two big names in shoegaze I tend to cite are My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive, because of the overall atmospheres and emotion that they create with their music, and The Millia Pink and Green is a revival of sorts of their main genre of music; but with a sound that instead of copying, reaches beyond the two bands’ individual styles for a third distinct part of shoegaze.  Just listening to the first track sends me into bliss, so with that in mind, you might want to find a special time and place to listen to this release.  “Like a mind-altering substance, without the risk” (look up the quotation).
            Here’s my TBT:

            The EP starts off quickly with a hit of sound.  It's immediately enveloping and classic, through huge guitar and sharp drums.  This is one of only a handful of songs I mean when I say  "shoegaze proper”.  The crisp snares ride waves of guitar delays, as the beautifully sung and wonderfully harmonized vocals, heavily drowned in reverb, create yet another atmosphere within the song.  Even though the chorus is one word, it’s addictive and massively ethereal.  The lyrics seem to be nice (from what I can understand of them), and it just feels like one of those songs you remember.  Touches of bass and glockenspiel add to the instantly classic nature of the track, which just solidifies the perfection of “Fall”.

            “Sounds Like Everyone” comes next, and is very Slowdive.  Processed and layered guitars play drums that slowly fade in over their own reverberations.  All of the guitar in the chorus brings out what it might sound like if My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless were part of Slowdive’s Souvlaki.  The vocals are harmonized and processed, and again, the compression on this track especially brings out that distinctively well-done burning sound.  The end is a complete abandon to the forces of music.  It’s a rich phased treat, and the minor key emphasizes a forceful yet soft seriousness like the darker songs by Sigur Ros.  Or perhaps this is the song I’ll be referring to in the future about that sound.

            “Sullust” is like Slowdive’s ambient work Pygmalion, but with a modern flare.  It’s an ethereal sound progressing linearly, without chorus or definable words; only the harmony of massive guitars and vocals, and an underlying drumbeat and bass that supports it well.  If there are synths in the track, they are only slightly discernible above the guitars and vocals, and what I think are synths might just be a trick of the mind induced by oceans of reverb.  It’s textured so well that it doesn't sound muddled, yet simultaneously it overwhelms the senses with harmonies through vast reverb soundscapes.

            “Ever And Ever” is the fourth track, with a great indie tom-based drumbeat, and introspective lyrics like: “Everything we are goes away / All we are is dust”.  Guitar and vocals once again amaze.  There are loads of resonant tones throughout the track, and the end brings the classic riding shoegaze-style drumbeat back.  Staggering harmonies, and sheer love come through level after level of music, which takes more than just a few listens to even begin to explore.

            The final track, “Opentillate”, is like what it would sound like if R.E.M. at their musical peak collaborated with Slowdive just before their last album, and Billy Corgan ghostwrote some guitar lines.  The levels of resonance bring a bliss to the track unparalleled in most songs, and 90s-alt-rock guitar glows beside harmonies to perfection, a soft but powerful bass, and drums that contain all the elements of the previous tracks.  How five tracks like the ones on this EP were ever brought together astounds me, because any band with one of them to their credit deserves praise.

            Overall, in a word, perfection; musical sophistication and production quality is through the roof, and I'm in love with this EP.  You can download it in CD quality for whatever price pleases you at http://sway.bandcamp.com.  Sway has since split up, leaving Andrew Saks as the sole member of Sway.  Fortunately, that means we can expect new songs from Sway in the future.  If they’re anything close to this, I can’t wait.