By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Dead Bandit’s self-titled grayscale post-rock album, out now via Quindi Records, and Lisa Crawley’s introspective indie pop EP NEW GIRL SYNDROME!
Dead Bandit – S/T
Genre: Post-Rock, Ambient
Favorite Tracks: “Half Smoked Cigarette,” “The Bug,” “Lucien’s Bitters”
A grey sky, a dark forest, obscured by a thin fog—the cover of DEAD BANDIT, the self-titled third album from the transnational post-rock duo, is instructive as to what to expect. There’s a liminality to their sound, represented in the contrast between the black of the trees and the pale grey in the sky, but the barrier is porous—the color is a gradient.
The music of DEAD BANDIT exists in a similarly liminal state, nearly too slight to be post-rock and on the edge of too busy to be ambient. The mechanical thump of late album highlight “Lucien’s Bitters,” for example, and the warbling, woozy guitar line that pulses through the track gives it a sense of urgency; by the time it’s over, it’s easy to forget there’s barely been any forward movement for the entirety of the song’s four minutes. Early single “Glass” operates similarly; a stuttering drone gradually increases in intensity over a metronomic beat, all the tangibility of the blowing wind.
Much of DEAD BANDIT unfolds in this way; songs morph so subtly that it’s hardly noticeable until they end. The riffs in “Miles” open up wider and wider as it goes, and slowly pieces begin dripping in, and on “Buttercup” the beat skips under plaintive, airy piano; when alien-sounding drones creep into the frame, at first they’re nearly imperceptible. “Buttercup” flows neatly into “Pink,” a track that heightens the contradictions between the two ends of Dead Bandit’s sound. It picks up relatively rapidly, serene humming giving way to light guitar lines that feel comparatively raucous.
The less engaging moments on DEAD BANDIT are the ones that solely indulge their ambient tendencies. They’ve described “Sheets” as having “a pacific northwest vibe, where we both grew up. Rain, fog, and logging roads,” and it certainly captures the stillness they describe; the song hardly picks up from the sweeping drone that opens it. “Let the Dog Decide,” too, finds a groove early and settles into it. By contrast, “Amer Picon” is another ambient soundscape, but the band finds ways to freshen the formula, chimes shimmering to life halfway through, lending the song an otherworldly quality. On “Spidery Ways” Dead Bandit pulls a similar trick, riding a drone for minutes before allowing some bright guitars to force their way through—as on “Amer Picon,” that subtle flip makes a massive difference.
The band’s livelier tracks fare better. “Half Smoked Cigarette” is a greyscale swirl, trudging ever forward against the beat of a tinny drum with serpentine riffs winding their way around. The back to back “The Bug” and “Up to Your Waist” inject some energy into side B of DEAD BANDIT, although perhaps they ought not to have been paired together on the tracklist. The former is built on a stuttering beat that, juxtaposed with its bendy guitars, provides one of the album’s emotional peaks; “Up to Your Waist” has that classic post-rock upward drift, probably the record’s most traditionally-structured cut. It might not be quite as impressive as the softer, less accessible material that makes up most of DEAD BANDIT, but it still sounds excellent.
“Koyo” also toys with the structure of most of the 16 tracks here, but it does so differently; the song is sparse, driven primarily by a surprisingly catchy drum loop. Occasionally pretty, glassy guitar lines will creep up, knotting themselves around the beat, and then slide back out of earshot. A rumbling bass lick crops up around two minutes in—and just as quickly slips back out. It’s a clever inversion of what Dead Bandit do so well throughout most of the LP, a nice reminder that they’ve got a few extra tricks up their sleeve. Pick up the album over on Bandcamp, turn out the lights, and let it consume you. [Zac Djamoos]
Lisa Crawley – NEW GIRL SYNDROME
Genre: Indie Pop
Favorite Tracks: “Call It A Night,” “What You Can Do”
Silky smooth, sophisticated acoustics adorned by pianos and a voice that’ll reel anyone in, Lisa Crawley’s latest empowering songs will perk up ears. The New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based chanteuse has always worked hard, furnishing her relatable introspections with extensive emotion during her over-decade-long career. Well-established in her home country and Australia, she’s touched many hearts there, and now in familiar Merry-Go-Round territory since moving to the United States.
Her new EP, NEW GIRL SYNDROME, plays out with open, spritely arrangements that beg to be heard. Crawley, a multi-instrumentalist herself, enlisted the help of producer and engineer John Spiker to bring a gig theatre sound to life through a mix of retro and modern pop sensibilities. “Call It A Night” is instantly inviting, the pedal steel twangs and swaying melody imitating kicking back after an overwhelming day. The ballad sees Crawley putting her foot down: “You know I’ll keep you in my sight / But I gotta say I’m getting pretty tired / Maybe I’ll call it.” This is later extended in the cheery, hook-laden “The Gatekeeper,” whose lyrics are a reminder of self-worth regarding who gets a say in your life: “I let you in / Too many times / What’s in is out / Not yours to find / So don’t come knocking / ‘Cause I’ll be stopping you this time.”
The EP is at its largest on the closer and first single, “What Can You Do,” a twinkly ballad about questioning one’s identity outside of your career: “You can only do so much baby / You’ve got your work cut out for you / Take a breath, in fact go and take two / You are more than what you can do.” We are much more than our greatest achievements—Crawley’s exquisite songs assure us on this, musically conveying “you are enough” in such a wonderful way. Check out NEW GIRL SYNDROME on her Bandcamp right now! [Dom Lepore]
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