Mist & Sea
Unless
13 Track, LP (2007, Popfrenzy)
Related: Mist & Sea.
On their remarkable debut album, Mist & Sea evoke all the climatic peculiarities that their name implies. Unless begins with ‘Misty Mourning’, a gentle breeze of a song, gathering into the tumult of ‘The Howl’, in which a gale of heavily reverberated guitars duel with Vince Giarrusso’s (ex-Underground Lovers) weathered tenor. By the time ‘Like a Vampire’ is washed ashore, Mist & Sea’s forecast becomes clear: plenty of dense, shoegazing guitar distortion, artfully balanced with various other live and synthetic instrumental experiments care of Jason Sweeny and Cailan Burns (Pretty Boy Crossover).
‘Unless You Smile’ descends like a serious weather event, with muted beats pounding down over Giarrusso’s and Emma Bortignon’s distant, chilling hum. Ambient interludes like ‘Your Face’, ‘Dolphins’ and ‘Light the Fires’ bring a welcome calm between each storm, but * Unless* is most arresting at its moments of restrained bedlam. Mist & Sea aren’t afraid of noise, simply because they know how to find clarity and purpose within it. Such tact has always helped Kevin Shields to find his way, and may well explain the recent critical veneration of Glasgow’s The Twilight Sad. Let’s just hope there are more Giarrusso, Sweeny and Burns collaborations on the way, and Mist & Sea don’t disappear with the tide.
by Pat McGrath
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