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Well, well, well. 12 months of releases culminates in this latest EP from LA's THE LOUD BANGS, their most ambitious material to date. This is really 4 tracks from the originally conceived LP of "Future Plaza," plus one (very) old stray song from "Introducing The Loud Bangs." Same studio, same people, same approach on this one -- yet trying to pull the shoegaze and dream pop sub-genres in a slightly new, more modern direction. The band still isn't popular and is on the brink of being dropped entirely from their label deal, but we all stand behind this set of would-be classics. The EP features my personal favorite of almost the entire catalog, "Candy Sometimes Always," which, in another place / another time, would be a giant-ass hit song. But it also features great psychedelic tracks like "Spectral Field" (a big, daring opener) and "Future Bruises." We really tried for a compelling headphone experience on these tracks and it does not disappoint, if anyone is willing to give the material that sort of attention. Even though it's not from a different batch, the only real diversion from their normal songwriting would be "Late Day Magnets," where Alice & Co. allowed me to put on my Prefab Sprout hat once again, not seen since the days of OO OO WA, and really make some sophistipop out of this lovely late-night hookup song; so, yes, I play the keyboards on it, as you can probably tell. Lots of guitar pedals on this one, too. The band's early work was either clean or distorted; now, though, it's almost anything to make a guitar not sound like a guitar. Whooshes, fazes, reverb, chorus, flange, etc. are all in play here. We also really cranked the drums in a way we hadn't in the past (well, except for maybe on "Behaviors") and you can really sense the power of Marcus' kit. We still use a bit of the TR-808 drum machine here and there, but, for the most part, it's human-made explosions. A little about the closer, "Playboy Tattoo." This was actually one of the very first songs the band recorded, but it didn't sound very good. So it sat awhile until "Introducing The Loud Bangs," when I remixed it to (nearly) what you have here as final. The song was so intense that it always seemed to be a closer, but for "Introducing..." we already had two possible closers already: "Emergency Surgery" and "Doomsday Catalyst." Also, Alice wasn't very fond of her vocal take. Alice's "real voice" is closer to "White Witch" or "Candy Sometimes Always" or "The Jamie Situation," but, like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Mattie Healy, Kate Bush, or any of her other heroes, she likes to explore a lot more "characters" in her voices. So sometimes she'll sing low, sometimes high, sometimes through a lot of FX, sometimes totally dry, sometimes a little blues-y, sometimes a little rock, sometimes a little fancy, sometimes real simply. This "Future Plaza" session was the first time I suggested doing some pitch modulation in a computer -- making her voice higher or lower than normal. You can really hear the effect on "Spectral Field," which was done first and she loved. We did a little of it on "Future Bruises" and on "Glass Cabinet," but we used it more extensively on a redux of the vocal from "Playboy Tattoo." Originally sung in her normal voice, a new vocal plus the slight pitch shift sounded even more fragile and lonely, so this became a version that finally got a stamp of approval by the band to be released. Now the question became... um... when and where? When the label announced the "Future Plaza," too, was going to be split into two separate 5 -song EPs, it gave us an opportunity to have another closing track, so "Playboy Tattoo" at last gets its moment in the sun. There are actually a few b-sides from the "Future Plaza" sessions, songs like "This is a Japanese Robot" and "Bell Gardens" that are in limbo-land. And there are songs we left off to keep with the 5-song aesthetic of the band, like "We All Want To Be All Right." These may appear in 2023 on something. But for now the band is officially on hiatus until something else comes through. In a year, this is a lot of material from one songwriter and it's probably time for Alice to have a break. We got very, very creative in this period and it was a lot of fun capturing a band that is just starting to feel its power. It feels right, though, now to slow down and see what comes next. We don't wanna force it. Let's just see what happens. |