I’ve never really been that big of a sonic noise music fan – the
\nfirst time I heard the Cocteau Twins in college, they scared the
\nhell out of me. Admittedly, this is a bit of hypocrisy from someone
\nwho once loved the sonic orgasm that was Napalm Death, but
\nhey…<\/p>\n
Then this group from Champaign, Illinois caught my attention
\ncourtesy of their record label – absinthe blind. This quartet
\nproduces sonic rock without going over the top, and – good Lord! –
\nwith a beat you can follow. Their debut album
\nwhen our flashes sway<\/i> is just a sign of things to come – and
\nis damn near, but not quite, perfect.<\/p>\n
Lead vocalist\/rhythm guitarist Adam Fein could be seen as the
\ncenterpiece of this band, but in fact he’s not. His vocals more
\noften than not provide an important part of the texture that the
\nmusic becomes. Instead, it is lead guitarist Tristan Wraight who
\nsteals the show in absinthe blind. He wisely chooses to let his
\nguitar ring out without a mound of distortion or effects – the
\nexception being the ebow, which is used brilliantly. Bassist Mike
\nZolfo and drummer Seth Fein are the two other keys to this band,
\nproviding a backbeat that keeps the basic songs in focus.<\/p>\n
Most of the tracks on
\nwhen our flashes sway<\/i> segue into one another – and though
\noccasionally it would be nice to hear a break between tracks, the
\nflow from song to song seems very natural… even planned.<\/p>\n
From the opening guitar notes of “Bigger Thomas” you can tell
\nthis is going to be an interesting trip. At parts seeming like the
\npsychadelia that Pink Floyd wanted to create (without flashing the
\naudio from left to right in the headphones), the Fein brothers and
\ncrew lock you into the journey from beginning to end. After a
\nwhile, it feels so natural that you forget about following the
\ntrack listing and just let it flow.<\/p>\n
And although some tracks may seem long timing-wise (the longest,
\n“Catharsis,” clocks in at just over nine minutes), the songs
\nthemselves flow very quickly. Cuts like “Rabbit Girls,” “The Day Is
\nOver” and “This Room Red” stand out among the best.<\/p>\n
In fact, there are only two problems with
\nwhen our flashes sway<\/i>. Only one track is at all weak –
\n“Depressure\/The Forces Unseen” just falls a bit flat. And, like so
\nmany other bands, they resort to a “hidden” track at the end of the
\ndisc – and it’s a bit of a stretch. (To their credit, though, at
\nleast they don’t make you wait 15 minutes or make you skip through
\n50 four-second tracks to get to it.)<\/p>\n
The only “negative” about Absinthe Blind is that it does take a
\nlittle bit of time to get used to their style – but if you’re
\nwilling to invest a little time and effort to get into the groove,
\nyou’ll find it worth it.<\/p>\n
Absinthe Blind is a band with grand ambitions with no musical
\nlimits, as
\nwhen our flashes sway<\/i> proves – and is further proof that
\nreal alternative music is alive and well. I’ll be looking forward
\nto seeing what this band does in the next few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5938],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35898","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-absinthe-blind","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35898"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35898"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}