Bass becomes Salem, a witchy Chicago/Michigan/New York trio consisting of John Holland, Heather Marlatt, and Jack Donoghue. In the wake of last year's resurgence of lo-fi noise pop, an aesthetic that leaned heavily on treble, their emphasis on the low end distinguishes them from other young bands immersed in 4AD haze. And, as part of SALEM's apocalyptic lo-fi murk-pop aesthetic, it no doubt helped bring them to the attention of Patrik North, previously associated with Montreal label Summer Lovers Unlimited (Crystal Castles, the Tough Alliance, the Teenagers). Last year North co-founded a new label, Acéphale, with DJ friend Rory Them Finest, and SALEM's debut, the Yes, I Smoke Crack EP, was their inaugural release. London-based Merok (Klaxons, Crystal Castles, the Teenagers-- getting the picture?) picked up SALEM for a follow-up, the Water EP. Each limited-edition, vinyl-only release reveals a group with a distinctive style and a couple of should-be indie hits, but not quite the craft or consistency of their finest labelmates just yet.
Their best track, "Redlights", opens both EPs. Marlatt's ghostly, Cocteau Twins-like vocals ring around scything guitar textures, funereal synths, and a rudimentary, bass-heavy electronic beat you might expect from Polow Da Don. It's the kind of disembodied, hard-to-pin-down pleasure that made Burial's Untrue so welcome a couple of years ago, with the indie production values and cigarette-smoking nihilism (Crack? ...Really?) of 1980s goth. As on Burial's "Archangel", the hook is just an evocative fragment, in this case about some things that are hard to remember, and some things-- the ones we haven't done yet-- that are hard to forget. It's not really so far from M83's electronic shoegaze circa Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts.
What "Redlights" illuminates, the rest of the EPs explores, to mixed effect. Slowed-down spookout muddles "Water" and "Snakes" hint at, but fail to fully inhabit, the downtuned alien vocal style of the Knife's Silent Shout. One of the quietest tracks, the calypso-tinged murderscape "Deepburn", sounds so rough as to seem unfinished-- are we really ready to get just as excited every time some new band without proven-tastemaker connections sends us a track like this? Still, listening to the Halloween shoegaze of "Dirt", the thudding violence of "Skullcrush", or the deadly sexual confidence of "Whenusleep", you can hear not just bass, but also a promising new group who-- like Glass Candy in the realm of after-hours Italo disco-- have a signature style, and now just need to develop it. Bass should be a means, not an end.
Support The Artist : http://www.myspace.com/s4lem
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmdwjj4dwki
Their best track, "Redlights", opens both EPs. Marlatt's ghostly, Cocteau Twins-like vocals ring around scything guitar textures, funereal synths, and a rudimentary, bass-heavy electronic beat you might expect from Polow Da Don. It's the kind of disembodied, hard-to-pin-down pleasure that made Burial's Untrue so welcome a couple of years ago, with the indie production values and cigarette-smoking nihilism (Crack? ...Really?) of 1980s goth. As on Burial's "Archangel", the hook is just an evocative fragment, in this case about some things that are hard to remember, and some things-- the ones we haven't done yet-- that are hard to forget. It's not really so far from M83's electronic shoegaze circa Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts.
What "Redlights" illuminates, the rest of the EPs explores, to mixed effect. Slowed-down spookout muddles "Water" and "Snakes" hint at, but fail to fully inhabit, the downtuned alien vocal style of the Knife's Silent Shout. One of the quietest tracks, the calypso-tinged murderscape "Deepburn", sounds so rough as to seem unfinished-- are we really ready to get just as excited every time some new band without proven-tastemaker connections sends us a track like this? Still, listening to the Halloween shoegaze of "Dirt", the thudding violence of "Skullcrush", or the deadly sexual confidence of "Whenusleep", you can hear not just bass, but also a promising new group who-- like Glass Candy in the realm of after-hours Italo disco-- have a signature style, and now just need to develop it. Bass should be a means, not an end.
Support The Artist : http://www.myspace.com/s4lem
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmdwjj4dwki
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