Blackwater Holylight : "Not Here Not Gone"

 

So far, I have really dug everything this band has done, and it does not take long for me to conclude it is not likely Blackwater Holylight is going to steer me wrong with this album either. Driven by fuzzy overdrive and the languid croon of Sunny Faris, coasts in the middle of the bong worshipping rumble. Sure, elements of shoegaze and psych rock come together at varied points as the song progresses, but it moves more conventionally than previous efforts. Thankfully, not abandoning the jammy flow that has characterized most of what I have heard from them before, is still very much in play to create a more organic feeling. 

Things get maringally darker on "Involuntary Haze", but that, along with the tension lurking under the bass line, is all I really needed from them. It is a very well-mixed album, as many sounds coexist, with room to breathe. Sometimes Faris's voice sits further in the layers of guitar than what you might expect from your average radio rock band, but here it makes perfect sense. "Bodies" has a heavier groove, but not in a more metallic manner, just driven with more sonic heft. "Heavy, Why" is heavy as the name suggests, but from a little different angle of the throb as the vocal melody casts a more dreamy shade onto the canvas. 

"Giraffe" is an interlude with a more trip-hop feel. This contrasts "Spades," which is the most metal song on the album thus far. 'Void to Be" is a darker indie rock feel with moody, haunted guitar parts. There is a more sluggish drawl to "Mourning After." It drifts into an atmospheric drone that swells into the sunset. This is where the albums eneds wit ha folk touched flavor of post-rock that is not unlike what Emma Ruth Rundle does. While these final two songs might have to grow on me mood-wise, as they contrast the more grooving drive of the album as a whole, everything is balanced out, so I will go ahead and give this one a 10 as it feels like their most solid work yet. Dropping on Suicide Squeeze Records. 

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Blackwater Holylight : "If You Only Knew"

 The Portland shoe-gazers take things in a more organically jammed direction. There is a brooding underbelly to the verse that finds them taking off in a more stoner rock direction. The dreamy vocals counterbalance when they dig and go into more aggressive riffs that steer toward a more metal direction. But one heavy riff does not make a band metal. There is a brighter, almost 90s glaze to "Torn Reckless." There is a drive to this one, and a swathe of sounds layered here, but it is not as sonically dense or heavy as the first track.  

This is fine as the EP carries a dynamic breadth, which is important when there are only four songs in the presentation, as all of them need to count. So it's interesting that they end this EP with a cover, but we will get to that later"Fate is Forward" finds the lilted vocals coasting over the backbone the bass provides, as the song takes on a more deliberate rock throb. I can't praise the production enough, and tell you how perfect all the tones are. The mix is a masterclass for this kind of rock-based shoegaze, as it's organic yet heavy, with all of the sound given its rightful place, which can be a lot to work with as synths coexist with the guitar in a similar sonic zip code. 

This is one of Radiohead's more notable post-"Ok Computer" songs. It might be the best song on "In Rainbows' and an interesting choice of a song for the band to cover. They capture the groove, then the vocals do Yorke's melodies and mood justice without becoming a tribute band. I was unsure about how I was going to feel about this one when I saw it was being done and not dropping the song title on you, so there are no spoilers in that regard, but they do a great job with it and capture the spirit of the song. I will give this EP a 10. I wish this were a full-length, but if they are making you want more, then something is working. Out on Suicide Squeeze Records. 

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