-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Holy Fawn
ALBUM...: Realms
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Shoegaze, Post Rock, Indie Rock, Ambient, Experimental
YEAR....: 2015
LABEL...: Not On Label / Holy Fawn Self-Released
ENCODER.: LAME 3.98.4 -V0
BITRATE.: 268 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 6
SIZE....: 65.72 MB
URL..: http://www.facebook.com/holyfawn
- TRACKLIST
1 Can We Lie Here? 5:08
2 Colossus 5:18
3 Amulet 5:34
4 Foal 5:41
5 Gl≤andi 5:51
6 Lo 6:37
Total Playtime: 34:09
There's almost a fierceness in the way that Holy Fawn express the
relinquishing of control to the wilderness. Holy Fawn's conception of nature,
both violent and nurturing, focuses on sensory notes: the chill of cold winds
or dense fog, found in the guitars' icy reverberation; a more abstract wrath
embedded in the walls of feedback, which usually avoid a complete
overpowering of the instruments. Realms, in all its harsher shoegaze
leanings, can be disarmingly gentle - "Amulet" is illuminated with soft
washes of synthesizer and a simple, chiming guitar line. But Holy Fawn have a
tendency to make abrupt transitions - feedback interjecting on "Foal", then
interrupted by the near-silence of a lone guitar, then quickly forcing its
way back in. "Bury me, I want to feel the soil smothering," they sing
languorously on "Gl≤andi"; the ground, normally conceived of as a passive
device, becomes life-giving (and life-taking) soil. Personification, or even
the giving of agency, abounds - Holy Fawn tell us of a sun who dies, a moon
who watches, the waters of the creek that never behave. It dwarfs you as an
individual human.
The abandonment that Realms presents is equal parts mellow, dreamlike, and
relentlessly masochistic. A song settles comfortably into the lull of patient
strumming and slow, deliberate picking; the diaphanous vocals, drenched in
echoes, are so fragile that they must be layered to remain on the conscious
plane; and all the while, Holy Fawn sing about wanting to be cut open, to be
bled out in a forest. It's a personal blood sacrifice, a twisted appeal to
the sanctity of nature that relishes in its irrationality. Vicious feedback,
hovering right behind looping melodies, attacks from outside the reverie, as
if to confirm that storm-clouds loom over with inevitable lightning. Beyond
the hypnotic motifs lies further restlessness and irregularity: lyrics
associated with the verse of "Can We Lie Here"" cut into the chorus; the
drumming is animated with quiet flourishes and triplets. Therein lies the
insidiously effective method of seduction by Realms: a slow pulling into a
world where the lyrical surprise, nearly dormant in the swirls of sound, is
to be sought out.
In comparing Realms with a later work, the single "Arrows", I can see that
the seeds Holy Fawn planted did eventually germinate. The vocals of Realms,
which rely heavily on the production to obscure weakness in falsetto
passages, become more of an afterthought in "Arrows"; they smartly give way
to spiralling resonance, and let themselves be lost in the cacophony that
results from the song's utter collapse. The transitions (or rather, lack
thereof) have grown bolder, composure being shattered ever more violently
than before. What's also curious is the shift of perspective: Realms centres
on the willing victim, "Arrows" on a vengeful force that devastates during
the song's storm of static. The knowledge that Holy Fawn's music can become
further unhinged shines light on Realms - it will stop at nothing to return
to the place that pains it. But there's something exquisite about being
overwhelmed by what we cannot control, being at the mercy of that which
embodies life and can so easily take it away. It's a certain freedom.
*
There is a long-running joke at the publication that I have called home for
the past few years, Arctic Drones, that revolves around senile "Gramps" (at
age 37, I am currently by far the oldest writer on our staff) consistently
forgetting what he has previously written, and declaring that every album he
reviews is a "potential album of the year." It has become so well-documented
that, out of the desire to be as professional a writer as possible and avoid
repetitious phrasings, I have made a very conscious effort to shy from such
wording over the past year. Why lead with this potentially perplexing
anecdote? Because Holy Fawn has finally released their first full-length
record, Death Spells, and it is without hesitation and with full clarity of
mind that I declare that it as, to this point, my choice for the best album
of 2018.
Holy Fawn has been building quite a reputation for themselves over the past
two years, since the 2016 release of their EP Realms. Much of this hype was
driven via social media by This Patch of Sky frontman Kit Day, who proclaimed
Holy Fawn the best live band he'd ever witnessed and could often be seen
singing their praises all around Facebook. For a band that doesn't really
present as a post-rock band, they nevertheless began to establish quite a
following in numerous circles within that genre. For me, this marked the
beginning of a grand mystique swirling about them; a little-known indie band
from Arizona being touted as the next big thing by respected musicians isn't
something I'm likely to gloss over lightly. Upon checking out Realms I was
sufficiently impressed, but it wasn't until the band released the first
single from Death Spells, "Arrows," a full year ago that I fully realized how
exciting and potentially important this band could be. The slow, simple,
fist-clenching, jaw-tightening chug of the riff that follows the second
chorus may have been the heaviest thing I heard all year, which is made even
more impressive by the fact that the band could very easily categorize their
music as "pretty;" the ways in which they balance their divergent sonic
palettes is nothing short of breathtaking. "Arrows" was hands-down my
favorite track of 2017, building up a substantial anticipation for what Holy
Fawn had in store on the horizon this year. They certainly did not
disappoint.
What makes Holy Fawn so enticing is how disarmingly and lusciously
idiosyncratic they are; despite having elements familiar to several genres,
nothing else sounds quite like what they are doing. They are wholly unique,
which, in 2018, is probably the most refreshing quality a band can have. The
best description one could use is clearly shoegaze, but there are qualities
they possess û elements of post-rock, metal, post-hardcore and doom û that
set them in another realm all their own. Leading the charge regarding
distinctive qualities is the hypnotically vexing voice of singer/guitarist
Ryan Osterman. It is almost androgynous in its delivery, to the point where I
initially thought that Holy Fawn had both a male and a female vocalist before
looking deeper into the band's lineup. A typical shoegaze characteristic is
the dreamy vocals buried beneath walls of sound, but the approach is
different here. Osterman's vocals stand out with clarity, but the entire mix
is awash with a variety of effects and sonic manipulations, carefully crafted
so that the listener is never quite left on balance, like when your eyes blur
and images double, and in the moments before you can blink back to your
normal vision nothing is quite as it seems. Like the rest of the
instrumentation on the record, it's seriously well-produced, and the equation
is just right: pretty noise + heavy noise x unpredictability = Holy Fawn.
This may seem like a curious digression but bear with me: as I listened
through this record, I couldn't help but conjure thoughts of another strange
work of art that has compelled me for the past twenty years. If there is one
creation that I could compare Death Spells to it would be Dario Argento's
essential 1977 visual and aural assault, Suspiria. Like that film, Death
Spells is cut only from its own cloth. For as much music as I have listened
to and films that I have watched, there is nothing that recalls the approach
of either. Much the same as Argento's lurid, color-soaked rumination on the
occult, Holy Fawn's music is equal parts haunting and gorgeous, mystical and
sinister, melodious and cacophonous, alarming and transfixing. Just as
Argento lovingly transposed artfulness on top of trashiness, Holy Fawn layers
its source subgenres with a kind of sonic sorcery that is entirely its own
spellbinding brew. This connection may not be too outlandish either, as a
sampling of Holy Fawn's music videos suggest an affinity for the horror
genre, washed as they are in disquieting imagery and ghoulish subject matter.
If you're going to love Death Spells it's likely you'll know it by the 30
second mark of the album opener "Dark Stone," which demonstrates one of Holy
Fawn's signature inventions, disorienting transitions from quiet to heavy
that are as jagged and seething as most anything you'll hear coming from the
metal genres. These careful moments of precision studio tweaking are part of
what gives the compositions their power. You simply never know when this
record is going to knock you on your ass, and even once you do the experience
doesn't diminish. Like the aforementioned post-chorus riff on "Arrows," this
is a kind of heaviness that makes you lean back in your seat in awe. That's
not a feeling I find myself having very often, and I treasure it when it
comes along.
But Death Spells isn't all just soft-loud dynamics and spooky atmospherics.
You only need to hear the first propulsive seconds of swaying post-punk that
characterize "Yawning" to see that this is a band that can write accessible
rock tunes when appropriate. It's a track that I could easily imagine hearing
layered over an intense moment in a dystopian action flick. It's catchy and
has enough familiarity to lock in with listeners, but it also remains firmly
entrenched within the Holy Fawn aesthetic. Key moments like the
perpetually-building tension of the second single "Drag Me Into The Woods"
and the towering slowcore riffage of "Take Me With You" are balanced nicely
by tracks like "Two Waves" and "Same Blood," which could have been throwaway
interlude tracks but instead have their own distinct character and place on
the record, bringing some quiet beauty to counter the grim fury that the
surrounding tracks tend to evolve toward. "Sleep Tongue" concludes the album
perfectly, tying together all the varying threads of Death Spells into one
space, growing from pretty post-rock ambiance into dreamy shoegaze and
finally to desperate rage before collecting everything for one last
impassioned surge toward to finish line.
There are plenty of bands who capture me with a tune, but upon further
inspection the results are ever-diminishing. It is rare for a band to come
through with a fully-realized work that enthralls from front to back. Beyond
that, it is almost never that an artist can achieve that distinction whilst
crafting a path of singularity. Holy Fawn is doing that right now, and it's
time for more people to take notice. Of all the great records of 2018 û and
there are plenty û this one somehow feels like a landmark, something that
we'll look back upon and say "yeah, that was a moment of great importance. If
you haven't discovered Holy Fawn yet, you're quickly running out of excuses.
*
Holy Fawn is the band that has risen from the ashes of Owl & Penny. Lead
singer Ryan Osterman reinvented his sound slightly to produce this textural,
atmospheric indie rock release that is as quietly aggressive as it is
hauntingly beautiful. Clocking in at nearly 35 minutes, Realms is very nearly
a full-length, and perhaps it should be treated as such. While the songs
"Colossus" and "Amulet" were released as preview singles, they only hint at
the grandeur of the rest of the record.
Osterman's lyrics are heavily drenched in forest imagery, creeks and, of
course, a frightened foal.
Opener "Can We Lie Here" is a favorite, with its hurricane guitar delivery
and breathtaking vocals. Certainly the singles that follow are as beautiful
and dreamy, but choosing this as an opener was a wise decision. "Foal"
features amazing pounding drums that define the entire song, adding a
darkness and an Earthen rhythm, which is completely appropriate, as
Osterman's lyrics are heavily drenched in forest imagery, creeks and, of
course, a frightened foal. While he has reinvented his band, it appears that
his lyrical obsessions have remained.
Holy Fawn truly gets their shoegazing sound on for "Gloandi," which is a slow
burner filled with images of death and nature, and probably the most
beautiful track found here. The EP concludes with "Lo," which is downright
hypnotic and soothing until it explodes into a wall of solid noise. Holy
Fawn, like Owl & Penny before them, seem to reside in a mystical dimension
where they write beautifully strange music and only emerge to record it and
play it live. Osterman proves that he is one of the most fascinating
songsmiths in Arizona, regardless of what he calls his band.
*
Preview before Realms release:
Arrows is the first single from Arizona post-rock / shoe-gazers Holy Fawn,
coming album. It might be true that there is shoegaze in this song, with its
laid back feeling and calm floating vibes. But underneath there's a beast
lurking. A beast that is slowly evoked from beneath the subtle rituals that
is chanted in the first minutes of the song. This is where Holy Fawn stands
out, combining almost a black metal feeling into the music at distinct parts.
This interchanging between shoegaze feeling, indie/alternative and sometimes
post-rock, spiced with the brutality and heaviness of black metal, really is
a force. Arrows gently lull the listener into a trance, only to pop out once
with a warning, of what to come, before hell breaks loose. And indeed it
does. The ending of Arrows is powerful with guitars weighing tons and
heartfelt screams from below.
A Journey
The road to affliction and agony is one beautiful, determined, soothing and
fluid journey, embellished with dreamy ethereal vocals. Everything served
with a melancholic tone. Extremely well written and convincing.
I enjoy that tangible, repetitive mood that covers everything with an aura of
being one with your surroundings. That whole build up, towards the end, is at
all times, holding a firm grasp on the listener, as if spellbound. I
specifically enjoy that subtle warning after approx 2 minutes.
Only thing I could wish for, is a bit longer ending. That roaring fury would
have been a joy to listen to, for several more minutes. But at the other hand
it's also working quite well, with the song ending abrupt and with a
flatline. In the roaring part there's a very nice detail at 5:13, I like the
way the background drilling guitars kick in before maybem is cut loose.
One word on production. I think Holy Fawn nailed the production to
perfection. The way the drums are really in the background in the first part
of the song and kicks in for real at the end. They way the vocals are also
mixed quite low, fits the soundscape so good. Well done !
Shoegaze ?
If I should try to compare Holy Fawn with similar artists, I would say that
they do remind me of Whirr and also somewhat of Swirlies. Their more dreamy
parts are almost Slowdive. But Holy Fawn is way more heavy sounding in their
roaring parts.
Here it reminds me more of belgian post-metallers Oathbreaker and maybe also
Deafheaven a bit . That said, I think Holy Fawn are pretty much their own,
and in general, I think they have something really interesting going on for
them. The songs they write are just that better and even though this review
is only describing one of their songs, you should really do yourself a favor
and listen to the full back catalog of Holy Fawn.
-=- SHGZ -=-
P.S.
** Thanks ***
*** BCC FNT IPC SSR ***
*** For Knowing Where The Music Is At ***
*** Props to CaHeSo, awesome Asian Indie/Shoegaze ***
*** And to FANG/HOUND for supporting all the Indie lovers out there ***
--===--
*********************
* NuHS we miss you! *
*********************