One album. Two halves. Three players. Lots of strange and beautiful musical influences.
Well, that’s the by-line sorted; let’s dive in!
After a three-year creative journey, Onceweresixty give us their new album, Loco Sunset Boulevard / Ghetto Blast Noise Machine. Structured like a double EP it tips its hat to all manner of post-punk, psychedelic-infused acts such as Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized, but also the more shimmering sonics Guided by Voices and even the delicacy of the likes of Sparklehorse.
The two-part structural division of the album make perfect sense as the four songs that make up Loco Sunset Boulevard in the first half feel more traditionally song-structured, in contrast, in the second half, the tracks slip into a more hallucinatory haze and more floating and occasionally fractured sonics.
So, on the one hand, you get the coiled riffs and chiming sound of opener “Don’t Get Stuck,” a deft and delicate, spacious slice of understated indie music. On the other hand, “All That Glitter” is claustrophobic, dense, and dark—but deliciously so.
But, of course, things are never that clear cut and the songs on one side of the divide are still influenced by the sounds found on the other, it is, after all the work of the same band, turning indie pop songs into warped images of themselves and more shoegazing sounds into structured patterns.
Onceweresixty makes intriguing music—mercurial music, exploratory music, beguiling music. It isn’t music for the masses, which I see as a strength, not a weakness. It is music for the more discerning music aficionado, music for people like you.
Spotify Loco Sunset Boulevard
Spotify Ghetto Blast Noize Machine
Don’t Get Stuck
YouTube playlist
