Last month, post-punk/shoegaze group Olympics released their excellent self-titled debut EP. Based out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, the group – made up of Kevin Lujano (guitar and vocals), Charles Crutcher-McGowan (drums), Daniel Warner (bass) and Tim Robinson (synth) – have a timeless, yet highly specific aura that immediately remind us of groups like Red Flag, The Cure, and Joy Division, but not without, of course, that unique approach to and grasp of the new wave and synth pop genres that makes their sound all their own. Here, in this debut, in tracks like the dark jangle-pop ballad “Apart” and the absolutely stunning “Rose Garden,” it’s something like a sense of immediacy; the guitar melodies slash at dense, smoky fogs of percussion and bass, while Lujano’s vocals sneer and snarl, but also, at moments, have a hint of velvetine softness at the edges. Opener “Another Night” is the perfect introduction to this collection of tracks: dreamy, crystalline, phaser-like synth creates an ethereal, transcendent atmosphere, perfect for daydreaming, the narrative about being in love. “Lost in another world / With you,” Lujano sings, “makes me question my reality/ of what we’ve lost and what we’ve found.” Towards the end, the previously feather-like melodies slowly harden into stone, hinting, perhaps, at the feeling of slowly regaining consciousness from this brief moment of rumination.
Olympics is out now.
P
photo courtesy of artist
kid with a vinyl 