By It’s our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, featuring the listless dream logic of Softie’s first full band record SOMERSAULT, out now via Cherub Dream Records!
Softie – SOMERSAULT
Genre: Shoegaze, Noise Pop
Favorite track: “listless”
SOMERSAULT marks the first Softie material recorded as a full band; 2021’s STRONG HOLD was the work of frontman Nicholas Coleman alone. Now, however, he’s joined by four other Bay Area musicians, primarily members of other Cherub Dream signees. That lineup and that label provide a neat idea of what to expect going into SOMERSAULT: blown-out, warbly riffs; muted, moaning vocals; swirling, impenetrable atmosphere.
Most of the EP works on a sort of dream logic. Lyrics are indecipherable, with vocals reduced to a whisper behind a wall of feedback, and the rhythm section floats in and out of range seemingly at random; elements wheeze their way in without warning and they fizzle out just as quickly. Three of these five songs begin with droning feedback before the band kicks in—although there are gaps of silence in between each track, it’d be easy to miss them in the haze, allowing SOMERSAULT to play out like a single nearly-20-minute song.
To be sure, none of these things are negatives. For the lane that Softie operates in, such qualities are essential. It also means that when things switch up, those moments stand out all the more. On “2 tired 2 sleep,” Coleman’s vocals are pushed higher in the mix, allowing his sweet melodies to stand out, a bit of sunshine through the white clouds; the loping, jittery drumming that cuts against the pillowy thickness of “don’t look down”—a highlight of the EP—calls attention away from the guitars. When the riffs permeate nearly every inch of space on SOMERSAULT, the moments they don’t allow some breathing room.
On closer “listless” they stretch this formula out over five minutes, crawling toward the finish line at the speed and viscosity of maple syrup; the feedback is so heavy it crackles, and as the track wears on Softie begins to let some air in. Coleman is joined by angelic harmonies and cleaner guitar lines adorn the edges of the song; when the solo hits during the bridge, the feeling of motion sets in, “listless” ending somewhere hundreds of feet above where it began. That’s the magic Softie taps into at their best, the sort of moments that make shoegaze—oversaturated as the genre is—so special. Ascend with Softie on Bandcamp.
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