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somesurprises
- PERSEIDS
(LP,
CD,
Digital on Doom
Trip Records)
Seattle
band
somesurprises’ incredible album might initially
come across as somewhere between shoegaze, dream
pop, and psychedelic, but by album’s end you’ll
be unsure of how to classify it as anything, so
utterly in its own world and time it floats.
Its sense of psychedelia never subsides,
sometimes in the background, others front and
center, so I suppose it’s more that than
anything else, but really somesurprises has
invented something unique to call their own.
The
first three tracks are where dream pop figures
most, and they’re all killer.
On lead track “Be Reasonable,” songwriter
and singer Natasha El-Sergany’s vocals are
chilly and drifting, as in the rest of the
album. She
gently urges “Be reasonable, be reasonable, it’s
not inevitable, be reasonable” in a hypnotic
refrain, until you realize the song could be an
anthem to sing to everyone from world leaders to
the grumpy guy in line at the store.
The shoegaze-adjacent sound conjures up
everything from Lush, Melody’s Echo Chamber,
Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star and Marissa Nadler.
Production-wise, there are walls of
sound, and then there’s this, more of a Great
Wall of China of Sound.
It’s massive.
Also, I’ve always loved bands who lark
about after the main part of the song is over,
just tinkering away, which somesurprises does
here till the song slowly disintegrates into the
formless colored blobs in a lava lamp.
On
“Bodymind,” El-Sergany sings “Once I figure out
this body there won’t be any mind left in me.
Once I figure out this mind there won’t
be anybody left behind me.”
Again, the song is mesmerizing in both
its repetition and its thunderous, swirling
production. It’s
that effect of indifferent vocals in the middle
of a maelstrom that’s so effective.
We’ve heard that trick a million times
before, but somesurprises masterfully waves a
magic wand with it.
On “Why I Stay,” she intones “The sun
cannot outrun the moon.
The night cannot overtake the day.
Each moves in its own orbit and you can’t
force it.” El-Sergany’s
melodies are all stunningly gorgeous, and the
band’s colossal backing plants the songs deep in
your cerebral cortex so you want to hear them
again and again.
By
this point, just when you’re thinking you’ve got
Perseids’ style figured out, you’re in
for a change. Psychedelic
instrumentals such as “Snakes and Ladders” and
the later “Untitled” appear, and each cleanses
the palate for the next course.
If the album was already in a state of
slow motion, hanging suspended in the air, it
manages to become even slower and gauzier in the
middle section.
“Black Field” and “Ship Circles” add
tasteful cello from guest Lori Goldston, just
loud enough in the mix to be heard.
I know it may sound simple, but adding
strings, even one cello, to psychy dreamgaze is
bloody brilliant once you hear it.
On “Ship Circles” Josh Medina’s
shimmering jangling guitar dances around
Goldston’s cello while El-Sergany’s soft vocals
take you away. It’s
breathtakingly beautiful.
Closer
and
title track “Perseids” is monumental in scope
and sound. This
might be the most hypnotic track on an album
richly steeped in hypnosis.
It opens with more jangly guitar from
Josh Medina and another catchy, otherworldly
melody line from El-Sergany.
But the song transitions to shock and
awe, Medina’s guitar raining lightning bolts
down amid drummer Nico Sophiea and bass player
Laura Seniow pounding away.
This sets the scene for guest Jessika
Kenney reading her version of a poem originally
by Persian poet Hafez.
Her reading is animated, like a god
casting a curse on the earthbound inhabitants.
Shrieks and cries are heard, while an
offscreen calamity is taking place.
Order and calm are finally restored as
the song and album come to a close.
Perseids
is easily my favorite album so far of this
rapidly moving year.
It’s full of mystery, dynamite melodies,
and bursting at the seams with a superabundant
production second to none.
Natasha El-Sergany’s songwriting and
diaphanous vocals weave a spell like no other.
The music is timeless; it would’ve
sounded unique and original fifty years ago and
will still do so fifty years from now.
(Mark
Feingold)
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