Half String – Photo courtesy of Half String
Introduction by Bart Le Moo
Half String’s shimmering dreampop resonates once again thanks to Independent Project Records’ recent reissue of the band’s first and only full-length release, A Fascination With Heights (reviewed in Big Takeover magazine, issue 88).
The Arizona band rode the crest of the shoegaze wave that swept through the US underground in the 90s, seeing reviews of their 7” singles and CDep releases land on the pages of Big Takeover more than once.
Editor-in-chief Jack Rabid was so enticed by the sounds coming from the Southwest that he traveled to Phoenix twice in 1995 to attend the Beautiful Noise and All Fish Go To Heaven festivals organized by Half String singer/guitarist Brandon Capps and drummer Kimber Lanning.
Half String members and hmmm, who could that be on the right side? Big Takeover’s Jack Rabid, maybe?
In the mid-90s, Arizona was a hotbed for shoegaze and noise pop-inspired bands. Astrobrite, Firecracker, Dogshow, lovesliescrushing, and Six String Malfunction blanketed the desert with drifts of processed guitar noise and buried melodies, while Alison’s Halo spun an irresistible confection of melodic cotton candy and anthemic crescendos that swelled like storm clouds on the horizon. Led by husband and wife Adam and Catherine Cooper, Alison’s Halo proved to be a tour de force that paired well with Half String as evident with the many nights they appeared together on the same bill. Conveniently the two bands shared the same bass player, Dave Rogers.
A collaboration between Half String and Alison’s Halo seemed likely, though the first attempt back in 1995 stalled. Capps elaborates, “While we were recording the album, I was struggling with singing the title track. I think it was Dave who suggested we have Cat sing it. She and Adam lived around the corner and stopped by one night. It was all a bit rushed and I hadn’t thought through an arrangement for Catherine’s amazing voice.”
Alison’s Halo – live
The idea was set on the back burner until some 25 years later when plans started to unfold for an expanded reissue of A Fascination With Heights. “It was the perfect time to give it another go with Alison’s Halo,” exclaims Capps. “I asked the Coopers if they would be up for making good on our original plan back in 1995. Thankfully, they agreed. The basic tracks from the original session were provided to Adam so he could remix while Cat added her vocals to the song.”
Half String drummer Kimber Lanning offers a key insight about the new version, “It’s amazing to hear Catherine sing it, to hear the song through a female perspective. Changing a vocal can shed new light on a song you’ve heard a million times. This version has an entirely different frame.”
The new recording appears as a bonus track on the beautiful letterpress packaged CD and double-vinyl LP out on IPR.
The collaboration also gets its own music video, which is premiering here on Big Takeover. Half String guitarist Matt Kruse enlisted his own drawing and editing talents to create an imaginative visual interpretation of the song that he initiated back in 1995 with a rough instrumental recording of his guitar arrangement. “I was inspired by the hooded girl character who moves through a strange world in the video game Little Nightmare. The concept of a children’s storybook was employed as a starting point as well.”
Half String’s A Fascination With Heights expanded reissue is available on CD and vinyl from Independent Project Records HERE
