Weekly Release Spotlight: Past Lives
Posted on 1/18/2009
Past Lives
Strange Symmetry EP
[Suicide Squeeze]
When a previously cherished band splits into two new acts, the law of diminishing returns seems like it should be proven. Somehow, though, after the wild clamor for the Blood Brothers had to come to an end over a year ago, the law's validity was refuted. With the spirited debut of Jaguar Love earlier this fall and now the introduction of Past Lives, featuring three of the five former Brothers, it's as if instead of the raw power of the original lineup being divided amongst the two new outfits, it has multiplied. JL's Take Me To The Sea burst at the seams with rambunctious riffs and tight instrumentation and now Past Lives does their own version of the same, with equal success.
A constant comparison to their former counterpart, however, is monumentally unfair. The impressive energy and stamina that both bands display is similar, yes, but Past Lives is undoubtedly less about the pop and more about the rawk. No softness or bright melodies in earshot (okay, so there's a vibraphone on the EP's closing track, but it's so morose sounding that it might as well be an extra kick drum), this is bare-bones cranked-up party guitar music. Add in some relentlessly dogged drumming and a wailing rockstar-in-the-making singer and Past Lives' music transforms into a million little audio daggers just waiting to get pulled out so that they can stab and twist their way back into your ears on the next track.
For a debut of only five songs in a concise fifteen minutes, Past Lives sure know how to set a mood too - especially one that is so mysteriously anarchic while also infinitely listenable. There's no chaotic noise here; all the dissonance is patterned for the utmost pleasure, even if that pleasure is bookended with screeching six-string fuzz and/or skyscraper-high shrieks. Opener "Chrome Life" even takes its first minute-and-a-half just to build an ambience of dark and suspenseful confusion before it combusts into a paroxysm of rock. Also towing the line between savagery and moody is "Skull Lender", which feels like a trip down seizure lane, but has a sweet bridge center that is indicative of Past Lives as a whole: a synthesis of crazed and accessible, suggesting that diminishing returns should not be expected anytime soon by the Brothers formerly known as Blood.
Stream: Past Lives - Strange Symmetry
Written by Chris Polley, Radio K volunteer and host of Now Like Photographs.