Anything that draws a line between Skunk Anansie and the Palm Desert Scene (the more interesting, younger sibling of the grunge movement) and then keeps running back through the years to link to more psychedelic pioneers such as Jefferson Airplane is always going to work for me.
“Poison Pear” might be my first taste of Low Wave, and a quick spin through their back catalog shows this to be a slight change of direction for them, sonically speaking, but I love the fact that they are doing something new with rock music, even if, ironically, their revolutionary moves are powered by nostalgic grooves. But then what isn’t?
Even if their influences are not hard to find, as always, it is how you take those old sounds apart, and what you build with them once you put it all back together that is key. It’s not about the building blocks used, but about the sonic architecture being created.
And what they create is excellent: big but not bombastic, both artistic and anthemic —a dynamic ride between understatement and rock-and-roll sonic excess, a graceful and gritty balancing act. Guitars are both searing and subtle, beats are powerful but spacious, the basslines are the unseen energy, as they should be, and man, those vocals!
Rock music tipping its hat to the past whilst striding confidently into the future? Yes, please.
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