Philadelphia’s They Are Gutting A Body of Water have long occupied a space between underground influence and quiet reverence, and with ‘Lotto,’ they fully assert themselves as architects of a uniquely American shoegaze. From the first notes of “the chase,” the listener is thrust into a world both harrowing and intimate: Doug Dulgarian’s firsthand account of fentanyl withdrawal is unflinching, his words threaded through jagged guitars that refuse to let the listener look away. This opening sets the tone for an album that balances brutal honesty with musical expansiveness, stripping away the synthetic textures of past releases while maintaining TAGABOW’s maximalist sensibility.
Following this, “rl stine” grounds the listener in tangible human stakes. Dedicated to an unhoused friend, the track demonstrates Dulgarian’s newfound lyrical clarity, allowing phrases like “I know that hurts / Greet the day with a sweet reserve” to cut through the otherwise roiling guitar swells. Here, TAGABOW’s ability to merge gut-wrenching narratives with sonic beauty is on full display: the guitars and bass converge around Ben Opatut’s drums like a circle of empathetic tension, a motif that continues throughout the record.
The instrumental “slo crostic” embodies TAGABOW’s embrace of imperfection and live interplay. Each member takes turns riffing off one another, creating a sound that is simultaneously loose and hooky. Compared to the synthetic layers of previous albums, this track feels raw, human, and immediate, an ode to the band’s tight-knit chemistry. Similarly, “chrises head” nods to their electronic past, repurposing shimmering synth-style textures for guitar work that is urgent and corporeal, while “baeside k” recalls the scuzzed energy of ‘destiny XL’ (2019), grounding the album in TAGABOW’s foundational shoegaze sensibility. Together, these instrumentals demonstrate the band’s ability to balance old and new, noise and clarity.
The closing track, “herpim,” epitomizes the album’s thematic core: resilience through uncertainty. Over ambulance-like guitars and a looming, hoarse bassline, Dulgarian recounts an airplane emergency with the lyric, “We couldn’t land where we intended ‘cause there’s storms / but now we have to so I need you to buckle in.” The gradual fade of instruments and the final sound of a door opening symbolize both literal and emotional landing, an acknowledgment of imperfection, survival, and the ongoing pursuit of grounding amidst chaos.
Recorded in a junkyard near their Philadelphia hometown for an NTS live session, ‘Lotto’ situates TAGABOW’s music within physical spaces that mirror their aesthetic: rough, industrial, and unapologetically real. The clang of steel, engine roars, and shattering glass become unintentional percussion, emphasizing the immediacy and weight of tracks like “slo crostic” and “chrises head.” These moments reinforce that ‘Lotto’ is as much about place as it is about emotion; a sonic excavation of environments both tangible and imagined.
Throughout ‘Lotto,’ TAGABOW gamble on vulnerability over virtuosity. By trading synthetic sheen for human imperfection, tracks like “the chase,” “rl stine,” and “herpim” expose tenderness at the music’s core, while instrumentals like “slo crostic,” “chrises head,” and “baeside k” remind listeners that chaos can coexist with melodic clarity. TAGABOW’s courage to strip down, to embrace mistakes, and to foreground the human element in every riff and lyric results in an album that feels immediate, lived-in, and profoundly affecting.
‘Lotto’ is a record that meets the listener at the bone, confronting pain, isolation, and uncertainty while never losing sight of hope. TAGABOW’s evolution from synthetic maximalism to raw humanism is complete, creating an album that is simultaneously massive, intimate, and unflinchingly honest. It is the clearest articulation yet of why They Are Gutting A Body of Water remain one of the most vital forces in American shoegaze.
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