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Review:
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I get quite a few records sent to me for
promotional purposes, with various companies
hoping that I will throw together a few words
about their various releases. I am terribly
slow at doing this, as any reader of this site
will observe, but for some reason that doesn't
stop the flow of promotions. Notice that this
review posted in early 2025 is for a record
released in late 2023. A year and a half
late...
I also I get so many promos that I can kind
of see some overall patterns in things. I try
and mention them where I come across them, and
this release is no exception. And the trend I
notice here is that Mark Gardener, of the band
Ride, never sleeps. He works on so many
releases for others, in addition to being in
his band and touring a lot. How does he find
the time? I get tired just thinking about how
much work he has a hand in.
And here, he has mastered this record. What
does that mean, exactly? Apparently, "a
master" is the final mix of a recording,
making it ready for playback. Look, I am an IT
guy who writes about music online, so it is
highly likely I get this wrong. I am going by
what I read on the Internet (and we all know
how unreliable the Internet is...), and since
this exact thing is kind of vague to all of us
general listeners out there, I want to try to
put it into some kind of context. Maybe I got
it right.
Anyway, general busybody Mark Gardener (of
the band Ride), mastered this record for
listening pleasure. The band who's recording
he mastered, Seablite, are a four piece
dreampop act from the San Francisco Bay area.
They feature a lot of female vocals, a little
bit of twee pop lightness, some eearly 60's
girl group innocence, and a ton of jangly
guitars.
Most of the 12 songs on this record are
sight around three minutes long, so we are
dealing with short pop tunes. And the songs
sort of sparkle along, with voices not very
high in the mix, but all of the rest of the
instruments well balanced. I really the
basswork here, it drives the songs along
nicely. The drumming is light tapping, which
fits.
There are a few tracks that really standout
to me. Frozen Strawberries has a
slight layer of fuzz, like a girl group
playing Jesus
and Mary Chain songs. The vocals
unfocused, the guitars slightly fuzzy, but the
whole things grinds and chugs along. This
feels like a single, like in the early 1990s
there would have been a video, the band
playing in a brightly lit windowless room,
with others dancing as they played. It's fun
and moody and catchy.
Album opener Smudge Was A Fly might
just be the happiest song about an insect I
have ever heard. It features chiming guitar
and a running bass riff. The guitar interplay
here is sublime, and the whole thing is just
happiness in jangle form.
A great bass riff drives Pot Of Boiling
Water, the bassist channeling Peter Hook
or Dave
Allen and on Blink Each Day, the
guitars get a little louder and fuzzier,
adding a hint of Husker Du to the mix.
But there isn't a bad song here. I suppose
that my only word of caution is that
everything is kind of similar sounding – there
is a definite vibe that they are going for,
and if that vibe is not for you, then this
might get tedious. I find Seablite to be
refreshing and fun. So even though it is not
exactly a new album, you should check it out.
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