WL//WH Track Of The Day: AUGENWASSER BAND “Antennas”

Track Of The Day  Augenwasser Band

Started in 2014 as the nom de plume of the  Swiss multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Elias Raschle from Biel/Bienne, on the intersection between German and French Switzerland, the DIY project Augenwasser has developed in the space of three albums, from early hazy and estranged folk digressions to a leftfield, slightly dazed, minimal and atmospheric lo-fi electronica combined with noirish haunting, lately somehow danceable, synth wave realms, while still retaining its early hallmarks in the background, simply summed up as ‘drone-pop’.

Expanded to a real band with musicians from both sides of the ‘Röstigraben’, the quintet have radically reinterpreted a selection of past songs tweaked live for over a year, through an amalgam of musical influences ranging from Punk to Krautrock to Synth-Pop, but not only.

The first foretaste from the upcoming 6-track EP, “Versions”, is a literal revamping of the sax-trimmed, beatless and droning “Antennas”, lifted from the 2020 sophomore album, “Sleepdancer”, via Les Disques Bongo Joe.

Freed from the subdued contemplative, whirring blurry tones, except for a persistent swishing hypnotizing synth loop, the song heralds crystalline clearness with an echoing emotive shimmer in the foreground, chiming with a winsome, rich, and sharp chiselling of guitar-driven jangly pop laced with a striking psychedelic sheen, somehow suggesting echoes of early Lloyd Cole & the Commotions and The The.

“Antennas”, lyric-wise, deals with an introspective soul searching for meaning through a lens of fear and doubt.

Sparkling guitar melodies repetitively ring high on the swaying lilting of warm lithe basslines, to sprawl fluid, along the pulse of jaunty drum beats, with vivid wistful shimmering arpeggios, to angsty burst in high-pitched distorted rambling licks, whilst seductive rich and emphatic croons wander somberly aching with emotions.

Augenwasser‘s upcoming 6-track EP, “Versions”, is scheduled to be released, in 12″ Vinyl LP & Digital formats, on April 4, 2024, via local independent Swiss label Chrüsimüsi Records.

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