With all this talk about Res repping Brooklyn, I thought I’d ressurect a vastly-overdue-for-posting song from where the other half of Resonator resides-Atlanta.

One of the biggest surprises the past year has held for me is that of the resurgence of dreamy, wind-and-feedback swept school of shoegaze. Don’t get me wrong, I’d sell my left anything (or right anything, or only anything) for the chance to experience My Bloody Valentine raging into “You Made Me Realise”  for like 25 minutes until synapses are bloody pulps, nerves are raw and all sound is apathy-inducing, but on a day-to-day basis I’ll take the snowy dream-pop broken hearts club band  over the former, if you don’t mind. Lismore abandoned the prettydrone aesthetic whole-heartedly a few years back, and since then I’ve been wondering if it was left for dead. Thankfully, 2008 has proven I need not worry.

It should be fitting, then, that when I saw Atlanta-based Lou Martyr (formerly of Res favorites One Hand Loves The Other, who have called it a night in terms of production as a collective whole) perform with another Atlanta musician with whom I was way less familiar, Nerdkween, at the one-year anniversary of Wordsmiths, it was the latter who left me utterly stunned. Don’t get me wrong-in a solo capacity, working through older material and some covers, Lou was completely angelic-Nerdkween, however, was an unexpected teacup tempest.

Surrounding herself with what I’m going to call “seriously analogue looping mechanisms” (actually tiny, portable boomboxes) she used to create walls of ambient sound, Nerdkween matched jaw-dropping white-noise soundscapes with lo-fidelity acoustic songs, all seemingly themed on the concept of moving and searching for…something. Doesn’t matter-I, literally, found myself with my head back, eyes closed, utterly lost in her sonic world. And, yeah, I ambushed her as soon as I could move again. Posing on this has taken me too long.

Nerdkween: Earning My Disgrace

“Earning My Disgrace” is a soft,tinkling ballad, counterbalanced with the tiniest bit of hope every time Nerdkween’s fragile voice makes it out of the mix. With the sonic disturbances lying just beneath and just behind the song’s surface, this thing threatens to either fall apart or fly into the sun at any second. I could keep this on repeat for hours and not realize it.

The whole album is entirely worth it, and each song weaves itself into the tapestry of the next and adds to the overall feel of nearly 45 minutes of dark, glistening haze that’s achingly real. Pick it up from Stickfigure (where there’s also another song sample).

With all this talk about Res repping Brooklyn, I thought I’d ressurect a vastly-overdue-for-posting song from where the other half of Resonator resides-Atlanta.

One of the biggest surprises the past year has held for me is that of the resurgence of dreamy, wind-and-feedback swept school of shoegaze. Don’t get me wrong, I’d sell my left anything (or right anything, or only anything) for the chance to experience My Bloody Valentine raging into “You Made Me Realise”  for like 25 minutes until synapses are bloody pulps, nerves are raw and all sound is apathy-inducing, but on a day-to-day basis I’ll take the snowy dream-pop broken hearts club band  over the former, if you don’t mind. Lismore abandoned the prettydrone aesthetic whole-heartedly a few years back, and since then I’ve been wondering if it was left for dead. Thankfully, 2008 has proven I need not worry.

It should be fitting, then, that when I saw Atlanta-based Lou Martyr (formerly of Res favorites One Hand Loves The Other, who have called it a night in terms of production as a collective whole) perform with another Atlanta musician with whom I was way less familiar, Nerdkween, at the one-year anniversary of Wordsmiths, it was the latter who left me utterly stunned. Don’t get me wrong-in a solo capacity, working through older material and some covers, Lou was completely angelic-Nerdkween, however, was an unexpected teacup tempest.

Surrounding herself with what I’m going to call “seriously analogue looping mechanisms” (actually tiny, portable boomboxes) she used to create walls of ambient sound, Nerdkween matched jaw-dropping white-noise soundscapes with lo-fidelity acoustic songs, all seemingly themed on the concept of moving and searching for…something. Doesn’t matter-I, literally, found myself with my head back, eyes closed, utterly lost in her sonic world. And, yeah, I ambushed her as soon as I could move again. Posing on this has taken me too long.

Nerdkween: Earning My Disgrace

“Earning My Disgrace” is a soft,tinkling ballad, counterbalanced with the tiniest bit of hope every time Nerdkween’s fragile voice makes it out of the mix. With the sonic disturbances lying just beneath and just behind the song’s surface, this thing threatens to either fall apart or fly into the sun at any second. I could keep this on repeat for hours and not realize it.

The whole album is entirely worth it, and each song weaves itself into the tapestry of the next and adds to the overall feel of nearly 45 minutes of dark, glistening haze that’s achingly real. Pick it up from Stickfigure (where there’s also another song sample).