WL//WH Track Of The Day: BENEATH BLACK WAVES “Rites and Passage”

Track Of The Day  Beneath Black Waves

Two brothers, Nathan & Jesse Meunier, based in Burlington, Vermont, and a drum machine, with a band aptly named Beneath Black Waves, to sculpt a goth-tinged moody post-punk sound, equally mesmerizingly trancelike as darkly groovy, with spidery surf guitars at the same time skittish and glittering, shrouded in swirling layers of echoing string chimes, underpinned by a steadily pulsating rhythm section, to unfurl brooding introspective landscapes laced with a looming sense of overwhelming gloom and desperation, somehow in beautiful jarring chiaroscural duality with the mesmeric sparkling yet achingly plaintive and wistful vibes of the instrumentation. Only in the closing “Extinction Curse” do the guitar riffs become more urgent, distorted and abrasively whining to evoke the visceral and poignant surging ghosts of The Gun Club.

“Rites and Passage” is driven by repetitive, hypnotic beats interlaced with a sinuously gurgling bassline, throbbing under the infinite twilight sky, flecked by the flickering lush shimmer of twangy melodies wreathed in keening reverb and simmering, murky crunchy riffs to resound atop feeble, emotional male vocals dripping pain and passion into the churning tide of broken dreams.

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