Brooklyn Duo GHXST are soon to be releasing the third part of their Nowhere Trilogy of EPs. Gloom has been mixed by James Aparicio (Nick Cave, the Horrors). It’s a small collection of darkness, the end of a sonic journey across America ‘back to New York’s no-wave’. Read what we thought below.
There’s something to be said for restraint, for holding back, for not exploding and erupting. There’s a beauty in the simmering, fenced feelings, for the perfection in simple things. GHXST have shown that they are good at massive riffage and crushing sound in their last two EPs. Here they turn that around and with this release bring back the sound into itself and let the noise abate and fall away.
The music they produce here is all built on a solid foundation of guitar drone, it becomes louder or quieter, smooth or throbbing depending on the track, but it’s there all the way through, soothing and unsettling you both at the same time.
The guitars go from muffled and held back, to darkly poppy, to an echoing desert twang. They roll over the top of you and surround you. They catch your attention and make you listen. The feeling of the record is of endless desert, blazing sun with a deep thirst and wanting that can’t be quenched. It’s a masterclass in holding back the fury, of keeping everything inside, of not letting go. It’s huge strength is in it’s tension at not blazing forward.
It’s short at only six songs but that just means that you want more, so end up going back to their old releases or simply playing the whole thing again. Gloom is GHXST’s latest release and I will be waiting with anticipation for their next.
