By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Above Me’s distinguished self-titled shoegaze effort and Subsonic Eye’s ambitious and peppy indie pop album SINGAPORE DREAMING!
Above Me – S/T
Genre: Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Dream Pop
Favorite Tracks: “grass mouth,” “place and a day”
Following the dissolution of his experimental shoegaze band Blue Ocean, Rick Altieri got right back to work. He’s been rolling out his solo project, Above Me, over the past year or so with a couple of singles, picking up right where his band left off, although his new material is perhaps a bit more accessible, a bit less outre. In January, he released ABOVE ME, the culmination of the first couple years of Above Me. In many ways, ABOVE ME fits in with many of the other noise pop projects that have been coming out of the Bay Area throughout the ‘20s, bands like Torrey, Softie, or Welcome Strawberry. The latter, in particular, is a fitting comparison, because both Above Me and Welcome Strawberry temper their blown-out guitars with drum machines and EDM flourishes. Such elements help distinguish Above Me from Altieri’s work with Blue Ocean, giving ABOVE ME a unique feeling in his oeuvre and, frankly, in the genre writ large these days.
Opener “out of body out of mind” is built on forceful, swirling riffs that feel overwhelming without feeling heavy, per se, hitting with the force of a downpour rather than a waterfall. The breakbeat undergirding those riffs provides a neat contrast, and midway through the song shifts abruptly; synths wash in twinkling like stars, the beat speeds up, and Katiana Mashikian’s voice wafts in to accompany Altieri’s. At over four-and-a-half minutes, “out of body out of mind” is by far the longest song on ABOVE ME, and it provides a nice sampler for the seven tracks that follow.
With its impenetrable wall of feedback, “grass mouth” is probably the most traditionally shoegaze-sounding song on the EP, but its skittery drum machine fills break things up a bit and allow the song a bit of room to breathe—to expand outward. By contrast, the following “shine thru” and “modern marvel” take ABOVE ME to its most far-flung territory, both incorporating ambient elements and washing Altieri’s voice out beyond recognition. On “shine thru,” Altieri sings like he’s floating in space over feverish percussion, stretched to the point of incomprehensibility over the clattering beat—the only part of the song rendered clearly. Even the drums on “modern marvel” feel caught in zero gravity, echoing and skipping over themselves under waves of heavenly synths. Guitars jingle in like chimes blowing in the wind, briskly and without warning, then fade out just as quickly; when a loping riff worms its way into the spotlight in the song’s final moments, it wavers and sputters like a scratched-up copy of LOVELESS played on a broken record player.
The warm “place and a day,” an easy highlight, is an appropriate comedown after the most challenging third of ABOVE ME. It retains the untethered, unhurried pace of the pair that precede it, and similarly reduces Altieri’s voice to a moaning gloss, but it unravels in more traditional fashion, sounding something like a cover of a Wild Nothing or Beach Fossils song commissioned to soundtrack a cozy video game. It sets the table well for the closer, one final chance to catch one’s breath before “stone mossy lime” sends Above Me into the stratosphere. The final minute of “stone mossy lime” is ABOVE ME’s most crowded, synths jutting against oceanic riffs against booming drums against Altieri’s double-tracked vocals. Like on “out of body out of mind,” it’s loud and it’s imposing, but it isn’t heavy. More than crushing, it feels light, like a release. Pick up ABOVE ME on Bandcamp.
Subsonic Eye – SINGAPORE DREAMING
Genre: Indie Pop, Jangle Pop
Favorite Tracks: “My iPhone Screen,” “Overgrown,” “Blue Mountains”
Subsonic Eye’s fifth full-length takes its name from the critically acclaimed 2006 film of the same name, which follows the Lohs as each of the four family members’ hopes and dreams butt up against the reality of their working-class lives. Such themes work their way into Subsonic Eye’s own SINGAPORE DREAMING as the five-piece indie rockers try to make their own way in a world where guitar music rarely pays the bills anymore.
Such anxieties are addressed upfront head-on; lead single “Aku Cemas” opens the album with a common scene: vocalist Nur Wahidah has just graduated from college and is struggling to find a job. Atop bright, bouncy licks, she tries to stave off the anxiety, unable to imagine a future. The narrative follows from there as the speedy “Why Am I Here” picks up the pace, Wahidah reassuring herself “I can do this” over shimmery bursts of guitar. Immediately, though, that self doubt returns: “My value / Measured in my net worth / Captured in IG / How can I afford this?”
On the chorus of “Being Productive,” over a jaunty bassline, she cuts right to the heart of mid-20s ennui: “Will I amount to / To what I want?” Rather than working towards her goals, rather than being productive, she finds ways to pretend “Like I’m being productive” by “Knitting a new sweater / Catching up on YouTube videos” and “Tripping over resumes.” Like “Being Productive,” the jangly, sugarcoated “Overgrown” cuts right to the heart of the issue. On the chorus, Wahidah realizes she has “Overgrown / My childhood room / It’s suffocating.” To cope, rather than just with the productive procrastination detailed in “Being Productive,” she turns to some less healthy outlets. The breakneck powerpop single “My iPhone Screen” begins with Wahidah “Scrolling on / Feeling nothing better,” all the while trying to convince herself she’s “Healing, healing, healing” as though the repetition will make it real.
The lyrics might be depressing, but the songwriting on SINGAPORE DREAMING is anything but. These songs are as lively as their narrators are inert, each line laid down by guitarists Jared Lim and Daniel Borces (who married Wahidah in August of 2024) bigger and peppier than the last; on tracks like “Sweet” and “Situations,” their riffs are joyous and effervescent, sparkling in the slower tempos. “Why Am I Here” features some of the best guitar work of Subsonic Eye’s career, culminating in a vigorous, springy solo.
It’s the album’s closing track, “Blue Mountains,” where Wahidah’s songwriting and the band behind her are least at odds. Inspired by a trip to Sydney’s Blue Mountains, it’s a sigh of relief after a difficult journey; it’s the only song on SINGAPORE DREAMING that finds Wahidah savoring the moment instead of fretting about the future, “Tangled and lost in this,” overcome by a feeling “So sacred / I wish not to speak.” Subsonic Eye dips into dream pop as the song unwinds over its five minutes, stretching out as though mimicking Wahidah’s feeling that “I could be there forever.” It’s a peaceful, gentle resolution for an album that never allows itself to breathe, a beautiful way to leave things off.
SINGAPORE DREAMING is Subsonic Eye’s release for Oregon-based Topshelf Records, following 2022’s MELT THE WAX EP and their 2023 full-length ALL AROUND YOU, and it’s the apex of their work so far. While Wahidah’s concerns may be local, even personal, they feel universal, and while the album title may be national, Subsonic Eye’s ambitions are global. Pick up SINGAPORE DREAMING on Bandcamp and help them get there.
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