Written By: Chris Parsons
Lorelei first surfaced in the 90s in Washington, D.C.–first as a quintet, but quickly slimming down to a trio– during the heyday of the city’s indie scene, and brandishing a distinct blend of post-rock structure and shoegaze wall-of-sounds. In this span of time, Lorelei released several recordings on Slumberland Records, including the 1994 LP, “Everyone Must Touch the Stove.”
Following the release of “Everyone Must Touch the Stove” and after playing together for almost 6 years, the members of Lorelei decided to disband and do their own thing in 1996. From there, Lorelei members went off to pursue other projects including LU, Chessie, Camping, and RDK. Following their hiatus as a band, lasting about seven years, Lorelei began working together again in 2003, quietly releasing an EP on an imprint, which was only a teaser of what they’ve been up to. Now, in 2012, they have returned to Slumberland Records to release their first full-length album since “Everyone Must Touch the Stove”– clocking in at just about 18 years apart!– and they sound anything but tired or old or out-dated…
Coming together on Enterprising Sidewalks, the band pulls-off a very full sound for their sparse instrumentation– Matt Dingee on guitar, Stephen Gardner on bass, and Davis White behind the drums– from which I would equate them to be something of a shoegazer power trio. The band calls their style “post-rock,” but it’s not in the vein of super-epic-crescendo-soundscapes, rather, they capture the rhythms and anti-rhythms which post-rock ripped off from krautrock which had subsequently ripped it off from jazz and so on and so forth. Basically what you have here is an indie, American shoegaze band from the 90s who is able to intelligently construct a wall of sound from many influences and inspirations by blending strong bass hooks and chords, delayed and layered washes of reverberating guitars, and a very strong ear for rhythmic propulsion held down in the drums. The band is not wholly instrumental, but the strong instrumentation allows the vocals to fall back from the foreground, and becoming more “one” with the wall-of-sound.
If I haven’t already tempted you enough, the technical production team supporting the band is quite impressive! Besides the band, production of Enterprising Sidewalks is credited to Ben Bailes (involved with performance and technical production of Stephen Gardner’s side-project, Chessie), with additional recording by Archie Moore (known as member of Velocity Girl and Black Tambourine) and– here’s the kicker!– mixing by Guy Fixsen (best known for performing production duties for records by such shoegazers as The Telescopes, Moose, Laika, and My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless”). With all these hands and hears all tagging into this piece, it’s clear that the sounds will be nothing short of deep, intricately-woven layers, a tribute to the washy, fuzzed-out origins of shoegaze. Tunes like “Hammer Meets Tongs” and “Sorry For The Patience” are easily as rich with rhythmic twists and melodic intrigue as their very best material, and Matt’s guitar attack proves to be as varied as ever, at times ranging from ringing harmonics to shredding feedback and then back, often within the same verse, all the while spitting off sophisticatedly syncopated vocals– Lorelei‘s Enterprising Sidewalks is pure ear candy (break out those headphones for extra listening pleasure!) that will have you craving for more and wondering if your ears have a sweet tooth too.
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