Track Of The Day Dramatic Shapes
A band that already struck me with their debut track “Fangs” around Christmas time on Soundcloud, albeit, unfortunately, I didn’t find time to feature it, is the elusive two-piece from Chicago, Illinois, called Dramatic Shapes, made of brothers Ronnie Appert (vocals, guitar, synth) and Theodore Appert (Drums, bass, synth, vocals), also part of the trio, not sure if still active, The Bingers with a lo-fi, punk-charged mix of surf and garage rock.
In the new project instead, the pair explore ‘a shared nostalgia through string synths and drum machines’, influenced by the new wave and post-punk of the 80s, even if in the less hectic and synth-laden new single it’s above all the painstaking clear guitar work that stands out in all its pristine gleam, rich in reflections and shadows, amidst the undulating propulsive layers of the rhythms of a drum machine and deep throbbing low vibrations, just caressed by a dreamy detached voice, harking back echoes of The Smiths, Lowlife, Durutti Column, the Cure and The Go-Betweens of ‘Cattle and Cane’.
A soothing yet poignant nostalgia percolates over perky, repetitive dry beats, sparse crisp off-tempo ripples, and sinuously serpentine deep bassline’s bleak pulses, induced by a wistful web of guitar inlays that soar and wane in sparkling intensity, illuminating the air with heart-wrenching crystal clear shimmers, smeared by sparse desolate shiny synth surges, dancing sorrowfully yet gracefully together with morose, haunted vocals dripping pain and dread into the cold, lost horizons of time.
Perhaps born as a divertissement, let’s hope to listen to more soon from Dramatic Shapes.
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