Decorum : "Vail"

This trio out of Brooklyn casts an ample shade of gloom over their sound on their new album "Vail". This is not another run of the mill post-punk revivalist band, they do not plug in a single six string and instead hit you with a hypnotic swirl of two basses. Vocally they weave their melodies in between a dizzy entanglement of bass lines  that warble in echoing waves. Male and female vocals dance around one another sometimes harmonizing at other times creating counter points. The male vocals are a dead pan baritone that sometimes reaches more of a croon. The female vocals are an indifferent indie rock alto. The bridge coming out of the verses is disjointed and gray, but it works for the sound they are going for. This is the perfect sound track for a rainy afternoon drive into an abandoned urban area. "Book Burning" jerks you from the drone they b began to mesmerize me with into brisk glide over the night sky . "High Order" distinguishes itself by going into the chorus at half time, and here chorus is more of a reference point, as they do not rely on the safety of traditional song structures. The chords drip with delay like it's wax from a candle lighting the way for darker clouds to roll it with the next subtle progression.

Sonic Youth's "Day Dream Nation" is a better reference point for this band than Joy Division or the more typical goth archetypes this current crop of bands are pulling from. They keep things up tempo, but gracefully dismal in their drone. "The Fall" finds the effects laden twin bass action capable of being melodic as their lighter string counter parts. The sometimes enter a weird sonic state of unsettling dissonance which takes you away it it's surreal rapture, not unlike some of the more fluid shoe gaze acts. In some the cinematic landscape being painted here has as much in common with post-rock as it does post- punk.This even has a surreal quality that you could zone out to much like shoe-gaze. The drums are rather minimal on this letting the cymbals carrying a static white noise with the faint snare is not marching them off the edge of the world. The drums give a delicate patter over the glass notes that spill out of the breezy "Artificial Tracks". This band's delay pedal is made of gold as it sends the notes pouring out like the ghost of a waterfall. The sonic drops are glimmers of a vibration that chant together.

The album has a very uniform sound when it comes to the cavernous echo that haunts it. It's how the notes are halted from their seemingly perpetual motion that sets "Blusher" apart. Vocals sound like the are being moaned from deep with in a narcotic slumber. The sound like The drumming keeps a beat, but stays out of the way, not offering many punches or accent expect to keep the song moving. The final song " Waxing / Waiting" was first released as one half of the "Centre" single released last year.It feels more corporeal than the bulk of this dream dipped wander this band takes you on. The rice paper snare hits are contrasted by the louder ring of the cymbals. The interplay of the two vocalists is woven around one another in not a duet or typical call and response, but dancing off one another in a manner not unlike how the guitars inter play. I'll round this up to a 9 as I like what they do, what they do just happens to have a very monochromatic shimmer.