Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
venturing – Ghostholding
“I hate every emo song” goes one instructive lyric on venturing’s “Recoil,” a highlight from the project’s debut LP Ghostholding. There’s a twinge of irony to it in the way that the album’s been so breathlessly compared to the titans of ’90s emo; it isn’t strictly accurate, really, for an album more in line with the current glut of ’90s-inspired guitar bands–or like a more conventional followup to Jane Remover’s 2023 Census Designated. This mode of slightly more straightforward fuzzed-out alt rock is a great fit; tracks like the aqueous “We don’t exist” and the jangly “Famous girl” are some of the catchiest and most immediately gratifying tracks in the whole Jane Remover catalog.
Still, Jane Remover isn’t known for staying in one mode, and even if Ghostholding is a bit more streamlined than previous efforts, there are still a number of detours. The blown-out beat on “No sleep” sounds somewhat jarring next to that song’s somewhat mathy riffs, making for a great juxtaposition under Jane Remover’s whispy, trilling vocals; “Spider” and “Dead forever” both collapse into squalls of overdriven guitars and overlapping screams in their final minutes, some of the most aggressive music the project’s ever put out. What makes Ghostholding so impressive, though, is the way it breaks so cleanly from what Jane Remover’s done so well up until this point; there are songs like “Sick / relapse” that call back to the anything-goes feeling of something like frailty, mixing elements of post-hardcore, shoegaze, and electronica, but they’re the exception more than the rule. A song like “Believe” is, at its core, a pretty traditional alt rock song, the kind that could’ve come out in 1997, and it’s done as confidently and as impressively as anything Jane Remover’s ever done before. It’s a talent knowing when to hold back, and Ghostholding is a testament to that.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
Glixen – Quiet Pleasures
Last year’s standalone singles “foreversoon” and “lust” were Glixen’s heaviest tracks yet, hinting that the band might go full grunge-gaze on their Quiet Pleasures EP. As good as “foreversoon” and “lust” are, it’s for the best that Quiet Pleasures don’t go all the way down that road. Instead, the Arizona quartet beefs up their gauzy shoegaze ever so slightly, just enough to feel like an expansion on 2023’s She Only Said. The opening “shut me down” establishes this quickly enough, guitars blaring like sirens over violent percussive bashes before smoothing out without ever calming down. Also notable is that Aislinn Ritchie doesn’t sing at all for the track’s five minutes–a bold choice when her vocals are such a big draw for the band, but they carry themselves well as an instrumental ensemble.
The following “all tied up” demonstrates what makes Ritchie such a compelling vocalist–it’s impossible to make out exactly what she’s saying in the maelstrom of noise, but the way she draws syllables out is an essential and evocative part of Glixen’s sound. It’s a wonderful song, perhaps one of the band’s most immediate; “avoid” takes the band into darker territory, Ritchie’s voice rising like plumes of smoke over smears of feedback. It’s the album’s closing “lick the star” that really brings the whole thing home, though. A tranquil drone signals the start of the song before Ritchie’s voice begins to coo unintelligibly–it’s the calm before the storm, and two minutes in the full band comes crashing in. The guitars are jagged and rough, and with less roomy production the song might sound menacing; as it is, though, they feel comforting the way rain on a windowsill can be. “She wants a taste of the noise / forever drowning for more,” Ritchie exhales on the chorus, a perfect summation of how it feels to listen to Quiet Pleasures.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
you, infinite – you, infinite
Although Jeremy Galindo and Raymond Brown are founding members of the long-running post-rock band This Will Destroy You, they hadn’t appeared on a record together since 2008’s monumental This Will Destroy You. But now, with the announcement of you, infinite, that’s changed. The two reconnected during the pandemic to form you, infinite, a new instrumental project whose self-titled debut is pitched in prerelease materials as “a modern successor” to their last effort together. There are certainly moments on you, infinite that make that feel true: the gradual release of lead single “Throughlines,” the swelling, whirring climax of the 11-minute “Understated,” the way “Shine Eternal” careens between airiness and crushing weight.
But mostly, though, you, infinite is softer than the bombastic beauty that This Will Destroy You is known for. There’s far more ambient influence this time around, less clear movement and more stillness. “Cutter” inches through its runtime with the urgency of a cool breeze, soft piano notes unraveling against a drone like snow against a cloud-obscured sky; “The Elder” begins with a pummeling post-metal tantrum before pulling back and trudging along softly and slowly, teasing a return to that sort of chaos but never delivering. For about seven minutes “Currents” winds a shimmering drone and plodding beat tighter and tighter, and its release feels less like a shout of triumph and more like a sight of relief. Even closer “Dormant” flips the script: it expends all its forward momentum in the first half, closing out you, infinite with three minutes of increasingly quieter drones after three minutes of upward-roaring build. It isn’t, in the end, really quite a successor to This Will Destroy You. It’s a new face for Galindo and Brown–a record that doesn’t need to live in the shadow of its predecessor but exists on its own terms.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
—
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative is ad-free and 100% supported by our readers. If you’d like to help us produce more content and promote more great new music, please consider donating to our Patreon page, which also allows you to receive sweet perks like free albums and The Alternative merch.