Vaz
Dying to Meet You
Gold Standard
Like Sonic Youth circa Dirty, NYC duo Vaz strip their art-rock down to the bare essence of the song, trying to confine their experimentalism to within established rock parameters. The Sonic Youth comparison is only good for so long though: Vaz’ minimal set-up of guitar, drums and vocals, and the decision to leave songs at about two minutes, obviously limit the instrumental possibilities somewhat in the first place.
The instrumental performances and the band’s pummeling attack are wonderful, but the songwriting is a bit repetitive at times, hardly challenging Vaz to move very far beyond the expected. The vocals work well within the context of the music, but they are still a bit anonymous, and Apollo Liftoff (!) is certainly a better guitarist than he is a singer. Dying to Meet You is good at what it sets out to do, although at thirty minutes, it doesn’t necessarily manage to bring forth the full potential of the band.
That said, Vaz add angularity and carelessness without losing touch of the direct, confronting aspect of the best music coming out of New York City, and Dying to Meet You ends up as one of the year’s biggest rock ‘n’ roll surprises to come from NYC, and one of the most welcome distractions from an increasingly halting, lackluster scene.
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