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There is something great about coming to this ep, having already heard half of the four songs that make up its run time. Having already loved “Pallisades” and “Always/Never,” there is a sense of returning to a familiar place, to some degree, but with two new tracks to try on for size, as it were, there is also a sense of anticipation. It’s the best of both worlds, like meeting up with an old friend and being introduced to their new partner. A balance of easy familiarity and the unknown.
And it is those aforementioned earlier singles that open up Kallai’s self-titled release, and “Always/Never” kicks things off perfectly, as I mentioned when writing about it before, the sound of the story of shoegaze being continued into the modern age, an echo of the past wrapped in the billowing sonics of the modern age.
But it is perhaps “Pallisades” that speaks volumes about the band. Erring, as it does, more on the side of a post-punk and doom-laden alt-rock groove, it is a spacious and brooding piece, proving that the band is certainly not just concerned with one sound or one specific sonic pathway.
On to the two tracks that I am so far unfamiliar with, and “Dig” is different again, perhaps the meeting of both those previously described sounds, an alternative, beat-driven, rock core swathed in the cavernous squall that defined the opening track. “Another World” offers a beautiful duality, shimmering with ethereal sonics yet simultaneously full of charisma and menace, a blend of sweetness and light manifest in sound.
And to return to the analogy of encountering these last two songs being akin to meeting the new, significant-other of an already familiar and well-liked acquaintance, I have to say that I really approve of this new partner. I like them. I like them a lot.
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