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This three piece from Minneapolis are fairly new to Web of Sunsets, but each member is not new to being in a band. The culmination of members from three different bands, this group originated in 2012 and began to create their take on ‘acid country,’ or what you might consider psychedelic soft folk rock. Room of Monsters, their debut full-length release, will have you swooning over dreamy soundscapes and delicate arrangements.
What’s special about the sound that is presented to you on Room of Monsters is the cohesive and smooth nature of all the nine songs on the record. There’s a general golden haze that coats the whole thing in a bath of twilight. Starting from “Wildflowers,” the opening track, you get the twang of the guitars coated in reverb and a ton of ambient noise generated by a synth and perhaps the soft twinkle of a keyboard. There’s a nice balance of acoustic folk sound that is mediated by electric guitar riffs echoing in the background. The vocals themselves, raspy to match the haze of the instrumentation, are also sugary on this first number; the feminine sweetness as well as their ghostly warbles simultaneously juxtapose and compliment the twang of the guitars. The result is an immediate hook to the music, enchanting you to keep listening.
This isn’t the only dynamic offered to you—on the contrary, each of the three members seem to trade the role of lead from song to song, sometimes grouping together for harmonies to grace the chorus of a song. Take the title track for example, “Room of Monsters, ”which comes to you in the middle of the album—we get Chris Rose’s vocals leading the way, but the ladies of the band join him for the group vocals. Though the sound is beautiful and delicate, there’s an interesting aspect of eerie that seems to haunt the album. It’s the odd sensation of being on the whole comfortable with a cool breeze, though it still gives you goosebumps; the haunting resonance of this group is sure not to leave you.
Oddly enough, despite the lack of percussion as well as variety on this album, I don’t find myself bored or sick of the sound when it comes to a close. The constantly rotating lead vocals and precision harmonies keep it from getting stale or uninteresting. Instead you have Room of Monsters, a stunning debut from this three piece that will have you lost in its elegant simplicity, akin to a radiant sunset.
Last year back Web of Sunsets released Room of Monsters, which we absolutely loved, though I felt like it was a vastly underrated album. The band returns this year with a brand new EP, Steel New Days, and their first offering is the piece of beautifully drifting pop. You’ll hear a gentle quality wrapped inside a light squall of guitar atmospherics, covering a faintly audible guitar strum. End of Time Records will be releasing the new EP on tape (and digital) on April 28th; I expect it’ll be something special for those who get their hands on it.
