“I quarantined my ass off during a global pandemic and all I got was a SOM EP!”
That’d make a helluva tee now, wouldn’t it? But seriously, any new music from this Shoegaze Post-Rawk quintet is cause for celebration not condemnation and we’re definitely grateful for the tracks presented on Awake in the interim as said global pandemic nixed initial plans to get a full-length out.
Around this time four years ago, I found myself on a plane having a legitimate experience while listening to the conclusion of an advance of Junius’ Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light and here we are today and I find the same thing happening while listening through Awake by an outfit who coincidentally feature members of that band along with former/current members of Constants and Caspian as well.
Short and sweet, SOM’s new EP delivers two gorgeous new tracks accompanied by four remixes of the new songs and some older gems. “Awake . Sedate” is a driven ditty that’s lush and languid, fueled by by a grinding groove that is ginormous in scope and packed neatly into a four and a half minute package. Then there’s “Youth . Decay” which is even more of what “Awake . Sedate” already is meaning bigger, bolder, and broader while also haunting with the way Will Benoit almost whispers out his vocals in a ghostly way. And all around that, Joel M. Reynolds, Mike Repasch-Nieves, and Benoit create a heavy wall of sound with their guitars as Justin Forrest’s bass and Duncan Rich’s drums round out the sounds with a rhythmic riposte of their own.
The Holy Fawn remix of “Awake . Sedate” is playful and brings to mind the recent spacious Electronica of The Weekend while “Youth . Decay” gets a treatment from hisself (Johnny Dang of O’Brother) making it more of a spectral anomaly. Closing out with an ’80’s-tinged take on “Open Wounds” by U Dye (Marshall Gallagher of Teenage Wrist) and Giuseppe Capolupo of The Devil Wears Prada transforming “Prayers” (Both of these graced 2018’s The Fall) into an Electro symphony, Awake ends by offering something for every fan of the band while exploring new facets of SOM’s musical identity in the process
Awake arrives digitally and on limited-edition cassette courtesy of Blood Blast Distribution on March 5th, with the rest of the physical product (CD’s, Vinyl) arriving on March 12th via Pelagic records. Pre-orders for all formats as well as links to digital services are located here. For more on SOM and your latest on that second full-length, follow them on the socials by heading here, here, or here.
One Response