It’s not often I immediately replay an album I’m hearing for the first time from a new artist. Listening to one album per day across over the last two and a half years will do that to a man, creating an insatiable desire to find the next thing that will delight the ol’ eardrums and send you off on a new journey.
But Wisp’s EP Pandora hit different. I’ve been playing this nonstop over the past two weeks, thoughtfully finding a way to work into a full album listen into my day-to-day life like my music listening career depended on it. Something about the chaotic fusion of jagged noise rock and shoegaze haze has really found a way to burrow itself into my brain (the clear parallels between Pandora and My Bloody Valentine’s 1991 noise rock masterpiece Loveless certainly doesn’t hurt either). The guitars teeter between hypnotic drones and distortion-drenched nuclear bombs, the off-kilter drums anchor everything in place, and the subtle but intricate basslines plod underneath filling up the space nicely. But the band’s true calling card is the lead vocals from Natalie Lu, which are buried so low in the damn mix you feel yourself physically leaning into the music to pick them out, like a soft-spoken secret she only wants you to hear. The result is a dreamlike cacophony which sounds like the soundtrack to a beautiful wreckage of melody and mayhem colliding at full force. I can’t get enough of it.
Standout Songs: “Pandora”, “Your face”, “Enough for you”, “See you soon”
