Draag
Actually, the quiet is nice
Julia’s War
Draag’s new six-song EP, Actually, the quiet is nice, is an extension of last year’s Dark Fire Heresy in most aspects, but also a pivot. Lead single “Orb weaver” and follow up “Microgravity tank” still dabble in the electro-shoegaze that made up their amazing 2023 release, but track four, “Recharge,” is a sonic experiment that caught my attention straight away. The composition of the song is squarely in Draag’s oeuvre, but the vocal treatment is much more black metal (at least what I have heard from the band) and distinctly not shoegaze. In some respects it could be shoe-gazey, as the distortion of the vocals still obscures in the same way that layering and burying them in the mix does, but this is more akin to, say, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love-era Deafheaven. It’s not bad, it was just not expected. With “Recharge,” Draag have now dipped their toe into the blackgaze genre that seems to be yet another sub-category of metal and the blossoming shoegaze scene.
Draag have described the EP as “an obsession with that particular feeling in childhood, while knowing you could go back, but no one would be home. Growing up with immigrant parents in the suburbs during the ‘90s.” and over multiple listens, I too get that sensation. It’s dreamy and distorted in the best ways. Transportive to a different time and place of childhood nostalgia. It’s beautiful to listen to, yet the written lyrics for Actually, the quiet is nice are massively and darkly honest. Full of pain, angst, and loneliness even in the midst of an apparent, yet undefined relationship. Someone is working through something here, and I hope that they find some solace that, sadly, others can relate to. This has always been a draw for shoegaze music. The deeply melancholy lyrics laced through the gauzy guitar walls and spry rhythm sections. It’s “sad bastard” music, as a great friend has called it for decades. For those that seek it, shoegaze can be very rewarding.
You can catch Draag on tour this May supporting Wednesday. Find dates at the band’s site.
