by Calvin Staropoli (@cal_staro)
There’s a video of Philadelphia shoegaze outfit They Are Gutting a Body of Water (aka TAGABOW) playing at a Sonic Drive-In in New Jersey. The band stands in a circle, with 3/4ths of them facing away from the crowd. They don’t really ever bother acknowledging the audience; they’re here to simply make some noise in the way only they can. On Lucky Styles, the band’s fourth record, they continue to do things nobody else's way but their own, continuing to refine their unique style of oddball shoegaze with an uncompromising vision of noisiness and weirdness.
So yes, this is a shoegaze record, and those My Bloody Valentine “vacuum cleaner” guitar tones are certainly here, but they’re not used as a crutch or an easy fallback. They’re just another color in the band’s expansive sonic palette. Through its all too brief runtime, Lucky Styles ranges from the crushingly loud to the stunningly serene, and never settles on the easy or expected choice. This record can get real noisy when it wants to, but the band knows exactly when to bring it back down to earth. They have a great ear for melancholic melodies, whimsical sonic flourishes, and unexpectedly beautiful chord progressions, all of which are able to be picked out through the noise due to some brilliantly clear and vibrant mixing.
In fact, the moments where the distortion fades and the songwriting and detailed layering are able to shine through end up being some of the most rewarding moments on the record. The gorgeous breakdown on the second half of “kmart amen break” sounds like it could have been on the latest Alex G album, with its whimsical descending chord progression and chipmunked vocals. Meanwhile, the dark and dreamy “violence ii” sounds like an 80’s new wave deep cut in the best way. “threes” is one of a few tracks that incorporate sampling, giving it a woozy, vaporwave inspired feel. Don’t worry, if you’re just looking for some good honest noise, tracks like “delta p” and “23 til infinity” have got you covered. It’s really quite an achievement that the band was able to do so much genre blending and experimentation, and still end up with a record as listenable and down-right fun as this.
With its melancholic songwriting, sonic detailing, and unexpected style detours, Lucky Styles is a peek into the future of shoegaze, and its refreshingly left-field take on the classic sound will both shake you with its intensity and stun you with its beauty. Despite it taking large inspiration from the formative shoegaze bands, this feels like a truly modern album. This isn’t the 90’s anymore. It’s time for shoegaze to go online.