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Phoenix five-some Lisa Savidge (there is no Lisa) are a “shoegaze/dreampop” group according to their bio, but they’re not so simply (self) pegged on this eponymous sophomore submission. They do dig the genre’s dense guitar majesty, offering intermittent, beautifully breathtaking, mountain-peak clusters of cascading cacophony—but those are mere passages. They’re as prone to temperamental soundtrack stillness, chilling post-rock, classical-inspired buildups, and even lots of harsher-faster-heavier post-punk loud-bomb rockers, ala Echo & Bunnymen, Pixies, and early Easterhouse. The closing, seven-minute, looming monster “Appalachacha (Pts 1&2)” is just a mega-capper for the erupting explosions that surface, volcano-like, throughout the LP out of both librarian hush and clashing, distorto power-noise. Finally, singer Dan Somers tacks on modestly soulful-to-agitated, throaty vocals to each clear-to-cloudy-to-cranky composition, insuring that even the wall of soundscape stuff is molded into songcraft—on this challenging, fascinating, unpredictable-turns work. (Black Cactus)
