by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Four years between releases can feel like a lifetime when counting in “DIY years,” but sometimes life just gets in the way. After false starts and scrapped recordings, Athens, GA’s Grand Vapids are set to return in 2019 with a brand new EP, Rake, due out February 8th, and a new record not far behind. Guarantees, the band’s debut released at the beginning of 2015 was a gorgeous blend of indie folk and shoegaze, an album that felt both earthy and spaced out. As the time between records became prolonged beyond the quartet’s control, their writing grew increasingly raw, increasingly hungry.
False starts be damned though because Rake album opener “Dissolve” is a vicious new beginning, a “welcome back” kick in the teeth. The guitars are built on widescreen distortion, blanketing the picture in a thick layer of buzzing fuzz, a dissonant framework for the band’s unusually gruff vocals. It’s not so much aggressive as it is agitated, the vocals howled and yelped in a way reminiscent to …Trail of Dead’s best art-punk moments. While the rest of the EP takes a more melodic and dreamy edge, “Dissolve” is determined to rip and claw its way into being, the opening line saying it all, “dissolved myself into your hands.”
Grand Vapids’ Rake EP is out February 8th.