Afraid of Stairs
Afraid of Stairs
Lavender
I love the resurgence of shoegazer music that’s been crossing my review pile lately. What’s even better is that most of it borrows more heavily from the Jesus and Mary Chain bliss-pop strain than slow, epic wash of My Bloody Valentine. Listening to “Tell Him How You Feel” and “Let Me,” the first two tracks on Afraid of Stairs’ self-titled debut EP, there seems to be limitless amount of distortion at their disposal for the guitars, but the rhythm section, and the drums in particular, cut with a disco-punk quickness right through the mix insuring the song steers very clear of becoming turgid. The stuttering percussion continues on “When Nothing,” but the overdriven guitars are used more liberally allowing some room for some bass leads that sound right out of New Order. “They Aimed Bad” wraps things up with an almost complete inversion of their sound. Gone are the layers of pink noise and jangly guitar lines fill the void. The hard-charging combo of bass and drums are still there and with the muffled, mumbled vocals mostly serving as melody I could swear I’m listening to a track off R.E.M.’s Reckoning. It’s brilliant, all of it.
Lavender Recordings: http://www.lavender.se
